this film defines the "action" genre - it just doesn't let up!!!

Rating: 8/10 (5 December 2012)

I saw this film SO many times at the cinema as many of my friends wanted to see it and I loved seeing the reactions of people to all the "shockers." Of course I bought it, and watch it quite a lot, and it bears up to repeat viewing even when you know what is going to happen next. If you haven't seen it yet, where have you been? Reeves, Bullock, Hopper and Daniels are the key players in this and are superb. Reeves - Jack Traven - the hot hotshot SWAT guy (oh the uniform!) who's a bit gung-ho daredevil "deeply nuts" next to the brilliant Daniels - Harry Temple - calm and measured, very sensible partner, apparently the brains of the duo, Hopper - Howard Payne - is the bad guy - and that's not a spoiler, you find that out in the first ten seconds of film and he plays "crazy not stupid" wannabe 'eccentric'" very well, and Bullock - Annie apparently has the surname Porter but I'm sure it's not mentioned in the film - the useful pretty suspended-license-passenger who drives the city bus and keeps it above 50! Great chemistry between Bullock and Reeves, and whilst you can see she's acting in places, she's a fabulous gentle foil for hard macho character and almost makes him see that people are frail as he's so used to throwing himself around. Amazing and poignant scene where Jack gives up for a short while, and she calms him... goosebumps. And more goosebumps later in the scene where he "didn't have anywhere to be just then" and doesn't leave her ...
The action doesn't let up. Cinema-goers squealed, jumped and hid their faces through this one, and everything about it is simply great. This and Point Break made Keanu Reeves an acceptable household name for men as well as women, as no man could feel embarrassed liking a film in which a guy hangs under the chassis of a moving bus! This is definitely a boy film but lots of girls seem to like it too, can't think for the life of me why!! Jan De Bont's Direction was excellent. I'd call him visionary for having the ability to keep the action so fast paced and every little thing just frays your nerves. It's tight. I almost regret seeing the extras on the DVD - once you've see how they do a stunt it's not quite the same. Special mention has to go to the composer of the soundtrack too, that da da da da da daaa pumped the action forward and added to the frazzle-ness of feelings as you watched as it heightened your expectation.
Despite all the action, there's unusually a really good script with some laugh out loud humour, great one-liners - who can forget Reeves' epic first line in this? "The Basement!" when he's still just the cocky-boy in the team, or the dialogue between Traven and Temple, "Was it good for you?"... But the best line of the film has to go to Reeves' friend Rob Mailhouse (drummer in Dogstar), "Bob, what button did you push?" as most quoted! Great seeing Alan Ruck (Cameron - Ferris Bueller's Day Off) in this with some funny lines too.