| | |
Still suffering from a high school crush on mary, the nerdy,angst-driven ted tracks her down thirteen years later with thehelp of a sleazy private investigator, who also falls for her.Unfortunately, every man who sets his eyes on the dazzling maryfinds himself head over heels in love with her.
"Incredibly kinetic, supercharged action...If you're going to make a nonstop action movie, this is the way to do it..." Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
"...a crackling blend of suspense and fun..." Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"Hang on for a wild and crazy ride." Pia Lindstrom, WNBC-TV
"...the film's sheer cut-to-the-chase straightfowardness is part of its appeal...[with] a terrific villain [in Hopper]..." Richard Schickel, Time
"Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!" Siskel & Ebert
Editor's Note
SPEED: A mad bomber (Dennis Hopper) is out for revenge against LAPD rookie cop Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves), who, with the help of his partner, Harry Temple (Jeff Daniels), foils the criminals' plot to extort money from the city by holding hostage an elevator full of people. He plants a bomb on a bus, set to arm itself when the vehicle hits 50 mph, and detonate if it drops below that speed. The hero, with the help of a beautiful passenger named Annie (Sandra Bullock), must defuse the explosive device before the bus runs out of gas. This fast-paced thriller received two Academy Awards for Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing, as well as a nomination for Best Film Editing.
Plot Summary
Jack Traven is a risk-taking SWAT Team officer, pitted against a mad-bomber, Howard Payne. Howard has a pattern of coming up with ingenious, deadly schemes: for example, he rigs an L.A. bus so that, after it reaches a speed of 50 mph, it will explode if it slows to below that rate.
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | DVD Quality Picture | | Full Length Movie | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: Fox Home Entertainment |
| Release Date: 2/7/2006 |
| Running Time: 125 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1994 | | Catalog ID: 2232698 | | UPC: 00024543226987 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Winner (1995) | | | British Academy Awards, John Wright, Best Editing | | | British Academy Awards, Bob Beemer, et. al., Best Sound | | | MTV Award, Speed, Best Action Sequence | | | MTV Award, Sandra Bullock, Best Female Performance | | | MTV Award, Sandra Bullock, Most Desirable Female | | | MTV Award, Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves, Best On-Screen Duo | | | MTV Award, Dennis Hopper, Best Villain | | | Oscar, Stephen Hunter Flick, Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing | | | Oscar, Gregg Landaker, et. al., Best Sound | |
Nominee (1995) | | | Oscar, John Wright, Best Film Editing |
|
| | Professional Reviews | Premiere
"...[De Bont] delivers a wild ride that's worth the fare..." - Recommended 11/01/1994 p.119Rolling Stone
"...A crackling blend of suspense and fun that gives you the rush of a runaway roller coaster..." 06/30/1994 p.79-80 New York Times
"...Delivers wall-to-wall action....[Reeves has] become an actor of real charisma....Hopper finds new ways to convey crazy menace..." 06/10/1994 p.C12 Entertainment Weekly
"...[A] dazzling action thriller....Even Hitchcock, I think, would have approved..." -- Rating: A 06/17/1994 pp.32-4 USA Today
"...It's one of those won't quit action pics that make Hollywood the frequent envy of world cinema..." -- 3 1/2 out of 4 stars 06/10/1994 p.1D Los Angeles Times
"...Invigorating....De Bont and his team have turned in a visually sophisticated piece of mayhem that makes the implausible plausible and keeps the thrills coming..." 06/10/1994 p.F1 Chicago Sun-Times
"...It's a smart, inventive thriller....A great entertainment..." 06/10/1994 p.41 Wall Street Journal
"SPEED has become a classic action thriller, and rightly so. It was made in the predigital days when special effects looked real because most of them were real..." 06/12/2009 Reel.com 8 of 10
One of the '90s' best popcorn flicks, Jan de Bont's bomb-on-a-bus thrill ride still holds up almost a decade later, with enough tense, fiery mayhem to please even the most jaded action fan...Of course, back when it first came out, everyone thought Speed was doomed to fail -- c'mon, Ted as an action star? (Nope, Point Break doesn't count, and Keanu Reeves wouldn't be dodging slow-mo bullets and fulfilling prophesies in The Matrix for another five years.) But as it turns out, with a crew cut and some buffed-up biceps, the erstwhile Circle-K slacker proved quite convincing as gung-ho LAPD bomb-squadder Jack Traven. Reeves effortlessly "whoa"s his way through Speed's elevator crashes, bus jumps, and subway fights in a role that, for once, makes the most of his rather blunt style of acting...This is summer cinema at its apex -- pretty people getting out of jam after jam in the nick of time and still having the presence of mind to make a joke about it. - Betsy Bozdech
ReelViews 9 of 10
Good action movies are rare. Great action movies come along once every few years. Speed deserves a place in the latter category, being the most breath-stoppingly thrilling motion picture to open since the original Die Hard. This is a film that cries out for audience participation, whether it be the silent majority's digging of fingers into armrests or the vocal minority's cheers and catcalls...With a single exception (that of the bus "flying" through the air), the stunts and special effects are flawlessly incorporated. And there are a lot of them. A whole lot...I never thought I'd be saying this, but Keanu Reeves does an excellent job. The actor has the perfect demeanor for Jack Traven, the cocky cop who tries hard not to get emotionally involved - and inevitably fails...This movie is a winner, and the closest you can get to an amusement park ride in a theater. Perhaps the same warning that's used for roller coasters should be applied here. You know, the one about high blood pressure and heart problems. - James Berardinelli
|
| |
|
|
|
