An action classic!!

Rating: 8/10 (23 July 2004)

This is one of the best action movies of the 90's, and certainly of its year of release in 94. The action is fantastic and the movie is a tense thrill ride from start to finish. Jan De Bont shows great flair and confidence in his directorial debut and has failed to come anywhere near the standard set here in his movies since. Aside from some fantastic set pieces with top draw effects and pyrotechnics, not to mention insane stunts, the movies pace is superb, it barely stops for breath and this helps to really stretch out the basic premise, similar to the way Die Hard stretched out a simplistic idea. The cast are good, Reeves makes a great action man and performs a lot of his own stunts, which add to the quality, while he does the stoic action role well leaving the acting to the endearing Sandra Bullock and the scene chewing Dennis Hopper, with good support from Jeff Daniels and Joe Morton. Still grade A action. ****