If nothing else, Speed does live up to its title.

Rating: 7/10 (19 June 2002)

It moves along faster than a speeding bullet, rarely slowing to take a breath, or for that matter, to develop its characters. How nice to see a pumped-up Keanu Reeves in a contemporary part once again. We've patiently endured his attempts at Shakespeare, his now-you-hear-it-now-you-don't British accent in Victorian-set Dracula, and his quirky surfer-esque Ted Theodore Logan from Bill and Ted fame.
In Speed, he has only to speak the simplest of lines while jumping from speeding cars to speeding buses, evacuating bomb-rigged elevators and climbing atop a whizzing subway train. Mr. Reeves does all of the above with surprising style, in what unbeknownst to him, would be his audition for a little film titled The Matrix.
Our unexpected action hero plays Jack Traven, a member of the LAPD SWAT squad. Jack has his hands full with Howard Payne, a disgruntled former-cop-turned-mad-bomber. As the demented blast-happy Payne, they cast Dennis Hopper. Now that's a stretch. Villainous Hopper does everything but twirl a mustache and tie the heroine to the tracks as he plants explosives from Santa Monica to LAX for revenge and reward.
Most of the movie takes place on a city bus that has been rigged to explode if it slows to less than 50 mph Now, really! When was the last time you were able to travel at 50 mph-plus for any length of time in Los Angeles traffic? On public transportation? Needless to say, Speed has some gaping lapses in logic plenty big enough to drive a bus through, but it does deliver on the mechanical, visceral thrills and on the quotient of daredevil stunts per minute. Sandra Bullock, Keanu's love interest, gets off some snappy one-liners, though the scriptwriters have not bothered to provide her with a character. She spends most of the movie driving that huge bomb of a bus around in circles, through traffic jams and over chasms in the freeway. We do learn that her driver's license has been suspended for speeding, but otherwise no mention is made of her life, though one would guess that she spends a lot of time at the gym.