Exciting but predictable action gimmick movie...

Rating: 4/10 (9 September 2009)

1st watched 9/7/2009 - 4 out of 10 (Dir- Jan De Bont): Exciting but predictable action gimmick movie is OK if you like these kind of movies, I guess. After seeing so many of these no-holds-barred, action-without-cease movies, you start knowing what's going to happen next and then it's over. The premise of this one surrounds around a man who wants money but is challenging the L.A. police department's bomb squad at the same time, for some reason(we find out later why). The enemy is played by Dennis Hopper and he isn't given much to work with in the role(he's a typical scumbag). The good guy(played by Keanu Reeves) is a maverick cop who gets in the way of him making his money after he puts a bomb in an elevator and it backfires. Sandra Bullock becomes the driver of the bus that has to stay going fifty miles an hour or it blows up(the 2nd challenge to the bomb squad). The cop knows what's going on and tries to save everyone as a maverick cop would normally do(especially if played by Keanu Reeves). There are a lot of holes in the silly plot and in my opinion, that' s why the movie doesn't work. Sure it's exciting, but the story behind it doesn't really come across as very believable. Also, technically there are some issues -- like background scenes behind the bus going way too slow for the bus to be going 50 miles per hour. This happens way too often. Sure, it's only a movie, but you'd think the director would think the audience might pick up on this. Something other than the action has to pull us in as well, and it doesn't. The actors aren't given much opportunity to act and the character's are not fleshed out at all. So we go home as an audience not really learning anything except we know we've been on a roller coaster ride for 2 hours(and I for one don't like roller coasters). If you like roller coasters, you might like this one--maybe.