I'm pretty sure, if I remember rightly (and this is going back a-ways) that this was the first movie I ever saw twice at the cinema, so impressed was I the first time round. This of course was in the days when I used to go to the cinema two or three times a week, and not now where twice a year is a spectacular achievement. Once you get over the rather dull opening bit, which consists of some lousy 'tension'-building music, overlapping a lift, er... going down, it really does become almost all action.
Reeves and Daniels are two top SWAT officers, who through their own endeavour stop crazed maniac Hopper from blowing up a lift full of people whilst attempting to extort a $3 million ransom. Believing this to be the end of it, as they presumed Hopper was killed in an explosion exiting the building, they both settle back down into their normal routine. Whilst purchasing a coffee a few weeks later however, Reeves' buddy, a bus driver, is blown to smithereens and Reeves finds himself answering a payphone with Hopper on the other end, telling him that he has only a few minutes to stop another bus full of passengers from also being blown sky-high. The bus has to remain over 50mph, or kaboom.
Needless to say this is an interesting premise which director de Bont manages to wring almost every conceivable action sequence and characterization twist out of. Irritating passenger? Check. Police screw-up? Sandra Bullock? Check. Check, check, check etc. Actually Bullock is very good in this, as she was in Demolition Man, and proves that as a comic foil she excels, but as a leading lady of any repute she simply has neither the presence nor the class to pull it off. Anyway, she's good, Keanu is handy and the other characters all do a reasonable job. There's a bit of interesting conflict and resolution on the bus, and Hopper looks menacing throughout. The bus also drives around a bit at a fastish speed, running into things, jumping bridges and generally defying the laws of physics. It's a fun bus. I'm losing the ability to write this review. It's good, watch it if you haven't already, or buy the dvd if you have. |
