 Despite the overwhelming negative reviews, the film did receive some positive feedback. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times and Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune both gave Speed 2 three out of four stars, and wrote the film's only two positive reviews, respectively, on Rotten Tomatoes. On their film review TV series Siskel & Ebert, they collectively gave Speed 2 a positive rating of "Two Thumbs Up", calling it a "truly rousing ocean liner adventure story", although Ebert criticized Bullock's more limited role in the sequel while Patric "stole all the action sequences". Since his original review, Ebert claimed that he enjoyed Speed 2 more than Bullock, and wrote an article in 2013 that his favorable review of the film "inspired more disbelief" than any other he had written and was frequently cited as an example of him being a poor film critic. At the Conference on World Affairs in 1999, Ebert spoke about the difficulty of making films such as Speed 2 and defended his review by offering a "Speed 3" contest for anyone to create a five-minute short film that takes place on something that cannot stop moving.
