What a beautiful rush!

Rating: 10/10 (24 February 2008)

Pop quiz movie viewers: How do you declare one of the most sophisticated action movies of the early nineties?
Awesome!
Jan De Bont's "Speed" is a thriller of all angles in which you have to keep guessing in the intense scenes on what is going to happen next. Sometimes you'll be right while in other moments you'll be forced to cover your mouths and gasps at the curtain surprises.
The film's beginning prologue introduces sadistic madman Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper, Blue Velvet) trying to accomplishment one of his life scheming goals: blow up a bomb in an elevator. On the outside, SWAT members Jack Travers (Keanu Reeves) and his partner Harry (Jeff Daniels) arrive and try to deter the elevator from falling before Payne realizes that somebody is trying to stop his plan.
Payne's plan fails before he comes up with another solution. Since he figures that Detective Travers is up for a challenge, Payne places another bomb on a bus where if it drops below 50 miles per hour, the vehicle will detonate on sight. It turns up to be a cat and mouse game for Travers as he gets on the bus and tries to figure out how to dismantle the bomb and figure out how Payne knows everything in advance.
What makes "Speed" such a fantastic movie besides the action scenes include it's top cast. No longer do we need action heroes like Stallone or Arnold to show their huge muscles where we have young talented actors like Keanu Reeves proving that he can flex his acting abilities besides being in Bill and Ted. Dennis Hopper is one mad S.O.B., in which his character has more smarts and surprises than any villain I had seen in 1994. Sandra Bullock plays Annie, one of the bus passengers, who would later be a successful actress in the big screens.
Truly, one of the best action pictures of the 1990's.