You Like Action?

Rating: 5/10 (15 February 2018)

Speed is a fast paced, action packed movie that focuses all its attention on action and little to a logical story and dialogue sequence. There was little time for me to take a break from the high-tension action scenes because there could be (and was) another explosion or crash around every corner. Jack even made driving interesting as he launched his Crown Victoria into the air right at the beginning of the movie.
Even though this was an original twist on an action film, the next scene was always predictable. Will the passengers survive? Will they make the jump? Will they blow up? These were easy questions to answer. The only unanswered questions I had were "Why don't they just..." questions such as "Why don't they just give him the damn money?"
The dialogue was also a major downside to this film. From the first time every character talked, you could tell how they were going to act for the rest of the movie. Jack was going to be the heroic and smart lead, the bus driver was going to be too kind for his own good, Howard was going to be the evil psychopath, Annie was going to be the strong and assertive woman, and so on. Speed was also full of cheesy one-liners and flirting between the two main protagonists and didn't require much thought. However, that could be why this movie was so successful and can always be found while scrolling through channels. If you are coming home from a hard day's work and want to unwind, this may be the movie for you.
Despite all the criticism, the high budget lead to some very realistic and believable special effects, good sets, and good camera work, even for today's standards. And it didn't have much of the textbook corny acting as seen in other action films around that time. Overall, if you haven't seen this it can be an interesting watch, but don't expect much from this 90's action film.