One of the best action films of all time

Rating: 8/10 (27 January 2017)

Action is not one of my favorite genres of film but I really enjoyed this movie.
The action was amazing, it was actual action, thrilling high-stakes action, not a fight scene. I'm not a fan of two robots fighting and destroying an entire city, or fist fights between people on top of a train or any of that stuff that's been overdone to death. Those scenes have one inevitable result and you're just waiting for it to happen.
In this film the driver has to keep the bus going, but there are numerous challenges as the roads are not empty. It subverts the hostage situation in films, where the captor is actually there, often surrounded by police, and negotiates with a negotiator for his safe passage and ransom.
Here the hostages are on a bus, the negotiator is on the bus, but the captor isn't. We don't know where he is, so the police cannot send a SWAT team to fix this. They actually have to use their brains for this puzzle. Even the location of this thing is not stationary, so the cops can't cordon off the block, they have to clear the roads as much as they could.
Hostage films are usually about police that follow protocol, usually with a rogue negotiator who thinks outside the box to do it his own way and save the day. This film is about a situation for which there is no protocol and they have to think on their feet.
That's why it's interesting and worth the watch.
I give it 8/10. There are some flaws, such as the bad guy being a cheesy, stereotypical villain, among others, but it still is a great film.