 Pop quiz hotshot, there's a bomb on the bus. And the only way to keep the passengers alive is with the help of Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Do you watch 1994's Speed or do you skip it? What do you do? What do you do? Oh, you watch, baby. ["Street Dance"] Now you might be looking at the date on your phone or somewhere else and thinking, is this 2022 or 1994? Why are we talking about speed? It's not trending, it's not popular right now. Well, because I just watched it with my family for the first time and I don't even know how long, and it still kicks ass. So I wanted to talk about it. I also hate being associated with rage critics or people that just get mad and hate every film. I love a ton of movies. It's not my fault that the recent ones have been pretty garbage. So I thought and decided every week, at least once a week, I'm gonna talk about a movie I loved from the past. It could be from the 80s, it could be from the 90s, it could be from last week. It just depends on what I feel like talking about and what I watched. My wife and two children, age 13 and nine, decided let's have a family movie night. Let's pick out something the kids haven't seen, bust out the popcorn, get some drinks, and have a good time. And that just happened to be speed, but it wasn't originally supposed to be. I actually wanted to watch Demolition Man, which I think is awesome, but it was like not available anywhere conveniently to watch. I think I had to rent it on freaking Amazon Prime. And in this case, speed was somewhere. I don't remember if it was Hulu or Netflix or the other 5,000 apps that we have. Regardless, we found it. And I was very happy that we chose this one. The first thing I need to acknowledge when we're going down the never ending elevator shaft and my kids who have ADD we're getting annoyed of thinking when's this movie gonna start, is the music. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. It's so good. It's so flipping good. There's like a good 20 minutes or so that take place in this elevator shaft. Where Dennis Hopper, the villain, RIP, is causing trouble. He's rigged the thing so that if he doesn't get a bunch of money, he's gonna drop this elevator killing all the workers inside. Hopper plays Howard Payne. He's an ex cop with a chip on his shoulder who thinks he put in the work, but didn't get the paycheck. He's a bombs expert. He knows how to build them and he knows how to blow them up. And he really knows how to laugh. Ha ha ha! So after Keanu Reeves and Jeff Daniels foil his plot, yes, Jeff Daniels is in this too, it's awesome. He blows the shit out of a bus just to prove a point that he means business. And then he tells Keanu's character who's a cop named Jack Traven that there's a bomb on another bus, gives him very little info to go on. And he says, you gotta get there before this thing gets to 50 and that bomb's triggered. And if it's triggered, it can't drop below 50 or that thing's going bye-bye. This leads to the first gripping chase scene where Jack's just trying to get to the bus as it's moving down the highway. He commandeers a Jaguar with the owner still inside. And I gotta say, actor Glenn Plummer is priceless in this role. He doesn't know what to do. He's making little quips as they're going down the road, observations, and eventually, and unfortunately, that Jaguar's gonna get pretty fucked up. Glenn had a bad morning, but not as bad as the one Jack's about to get himself into. The premise of this movie is so good. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, both figuratively and literally as you're watching. As the bus is going around curves, you're kinda moving with them as it's taking out signs, destroying cars left and right. And Sandra Bullock is Annie. It's just a delight here. I know it's a little bit redundant. Sandra Bullock is always a delight. The effects are almost entirely practical. There are a few moments when you can tell there's a model on display as opposed to an actual two scale vehicle. The explosions still look top notch. Cinematography's great. You really do feel like you're driving fast down the road with these guys and that at any moment, something can go wrong. And often, it does. Also have to tip the hat to Alan Ruck in this. Ferris Bueller's buddy, he's on the bus. And actor Joe Morton really nails it as the no-nonsense captain. The only negative I have, and it's one I have about a lot of movies, is it does overstay its welcome just a bit. When they get everyone off the bus in a very creative fashion, I kinda was ready to be done. I thought this wrapped up really well. But then we have another 20 or so minutes where the characters are now on a subway that has to go out of control in order for them to survive. It reminded me of the movie Ransom with Mel Gibson, another gem. Ransom kind of ends, but then it keeps going. And you're like, oh, we're still dealing with the bad guy. There's still more story here for some reason. Not the worst thing ever. I just think they could have shaved off about 15 minutes and you have like a beginning to end, almost perfect action vehicle. Fun intended. As it stands, if you haven't seen Speed, it's a classic for a reason. It's got the thrills, it has the high octane action. Nothing really looks bad. It's not cheesy at all. The villain's great. Keanu is very serviceable in the role. He's not like the most exciting hero, but he's getting shit done. Plus you have the charm of Sandra Bullock that just brings it all together and some of the great chemistry between the people on the bus and just the situation that's breaking out. It plays out wonderfully. I highly recommend watching Speed if you haven't. If you have seen it before, let me know in the comments your thoughts on the movie. If it's a favorite of yours, if you just think it's one of those great action movies that they don't really make anymore, like the video if you had a good time. Subscribe if you haven't. I put out movie content constantly and I hope to see you around. ["Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun"] Follow me on Patreon at patreon.com slash adamdazzmovies. Dun dun dun dun dun dun. I'm also on Letter Boxed. At Adamdazzmovies. Dun dun dun dun dun dun. You can also become a member here on YouTube via the Join button. Dun dun dun dun dun dun. or you can watch other videos. I'm done. I'm done.