Buckle up for safety! SPEED hits the streets

Rating: 10/10 (22 April 2008)

My Take: A terrific summer movie. Grab on to your seat and buckle up for one heck of a ride.
If you don't know how it feels to get "involved" in a movie's premise, then better rent SPEED and experience it yourself. Living under the shadow of DIE HARD, SPEED elevates the seemingly familiar premise into a virtuoso of action scenes and great pyrotechnics, plentiful enough for three action movies. Not contended with keeping our palms sweaty during a daring rescue in a trapped elevator, the movie turns into a mad dash across the traffic-ridden streets of L.A. during rush hour, and then later, a showdown atop a speeding subway train. If you are not thrilled, at least, by one of these action scenarios, then better go see a doctor just in case your pulse is still running.
Instead of ripping-off John McLane from the DIE HARD pictures, which is what a mediocre action knock-off would have done, we are treated with a great action hero. Keanu Reeves is Jack Traven, an LAPD bomb squad officer who, during the first hour, must try to save a couple of people trapped inside an elevator, while a mad (no, eccentric) maniac (played with real villainy by Dennis Hopper) awaits his demand of cash.
When that's all said and done, he must now drive a bus above 50 mph to avoid the bomb in the bus from blowing up. See, if the bus drops speed below 50, it blows up big time. It would have been easy if he was driving this bus at night, but this is rush hour, cars and traffic are everywhere. He gets a lot of help from a loyal passenger, played by Sandra Bullock, who truly shines in the role, given that she is given much more to do than your typical damsel. Director (and former cinematographer) Jan DeBont has a field day in his directorial debut, giving the film the touch of class that action classics, like the DIE HARD films, possess. If I may just note: DeBont was also the cinematographer of action greats like DIE HARD and TOTAL RECALL.
SPEED is one of those few action thrillers that won't disappoint, as well as those that don't make idiots out of the audience. Sure, some parts of SPEED are questionable to logic, but it moves fast enough (and I mean really fast!) to make you forget them. Another great deal about SPEED is that it doesn't get tired of itself. It knows it can do more, and it delivers. When it's done with one scenario, it proceeds to another, and gives as another new scenario there, and the clichÃ©s are thankfully unused due to the originality of its special effects. But most of all, it has a lot of fun with itself, as the audience has a lot of fun with it.
Forget the bloated, uninspired films that claim to be better, a great rental (or better yet, purchase) of SPEED on DVD is twice the treat. Action fans will have so much fun with it as much as non-action fans will love it. SPEED is a clever, thrill-a-minute juggernaut that, simply put, a lot of fun.
Rating: ***** out of 5.