Thick and fast

Rating: 6/10 (27 December 2006)

Celebrated thriller 'Speed' actually features three separate "thrills" in one film; the opening section, set in a lift shaft, is my favourite, and the famous bus-that-musn't slow down scenario occupies only the middle segment. The cast includes Dennis Hopper, playing to type as the psychopathic mastermind behind all the action. It's all idiotically silly, of course, and most of the individual stunts could have been done better (for example, when the bus jumps a whole in the freeway, we don't get a shot of the complete move), but director Jan da Bont keeps the action coming at a furious pace. It's brain-numbing stuff, but nail-biting too.