Fast moving thriller

Rating: 9/10 (15 November 2012)

As the film opens thirteen people board a lift in a Los Angeles skyscraper; moments later a bomb cuts the cable and it drops; the emergency brakes hold it in position but the people are trapped thirty storeys up. A disaster hasn't been averted; that was just to get everybody's attention; the bomber wants three million dollars or he will set off a second bomb removing the breaks! Some films might spend the next hour and a half working out how to save them but here this is just a taster of the bomber's behaviour. Cops Jack Traven and Harry Temple manage to free the hostages and after a confrontation in the basement it looks as if the bomber has blown himself to bits that is until he strikes again some time later. He blows up a bus and says he will blow up a second one. The second bus has been wired so that as soon as it hits 50MPH the bomb is activated and when it decelerates below 50MPH it will explode. He clearly wants to play with Jack as he tells him where the bus is and what number it is. Jack manages to get on board and the situation soon gets worse; an accidental shooting leaves the driver severely injured so passenger, Annie Porter must take the wheel. If they are to survive she will have to keep the bus above 50MPH even when the road is full of traffic or at one point non-existent necessitating a jump! As they drive along trying to find a solution Harry manages to identify the bomber; it may be a bit late for that information to be useful though.
This is a solid action movie where the tension is kept high almost from start to finish and as the bus keeps on going no matter what obstacles it meets there isn't time to look for plot holes or worry that it would be very unlikely that they could maintain that speed while doing the things it does. Keanu Reaves does a pretty good job as Jack Traven and Sandra Bullock is likable as always. Dennis Hopper puts in his trademark insane performance as bomber Howard Payne; over the top maybe but fun to watch. There isn't a huge amount of violent action but what there is is fairly intense; in the opening scene somebody is stabbed in the head, later one somebody is shot with a submachinegun and Payne is ultimately decapitated! Any fan of the action genre is likely to enjoy this and it doesn't lose any of the excitement on repeat viewings.