Exactly what I expected..

Rating: 8/10 (21 June 2001)

I couldn't believe, in going through the first page of user comments, how many negative reviews I read on this movie. How did so many of you not like this movie and yet, as a group, choose it as #30 of all-time!?
Second, what is it with all of the complaints of plot holes, acting, and screenplay? Come on people, were you honestly expecting Casablanca? Would you ever watch a movie starring Keanu Reeves and expect it to top "Speed" on an intellecual level?
I get the feeling that so many users on this site don't know how to throughly enjoy a movie just because it is fun. It has to be "intelligent" or "original." Otherwise it's a waste of your time.
Ok, now that I've vented a bit, let me say what I thought of the movie. It was what I expected to see.. a highly entertaining movie in the style of a video game. The acting was not bad, and I thought Keanu Reeves was far from "terrible", as one reviewer put it. Let no one think that he was even close to being robbed on oscar night, but his acting was the best I've seen from him thus far.
And let's not forget a wonderful aspect of this film... Don Davis's score. Don Davis has been contributing with great orchestrations for other people's scores for some time.. including James Horner. But he is a highly sophisticated composer with great technique. It is great that he is finally getting an opportunity to be behind the composer's wheel.
Now the most attacked part of this movie is the plausibility of it. Hey, there is much of it that I found unbelieveable. But I didn't find this distracting. Every now and then, it's good to just enjoy a movie for the entertainment value, which is what this movie is about. It's not what I'd call a "brainless" action flick. But I couldn't imagine why anybody would go in to this movie expecting a whole lot more. Just have fun, and don't analyze it to death.