Speed 1 & 2 Box Set [DVD] [1994]

Speedy Review:

Speed : Brilliant screenplay as if comic strip type. Fast moving action brilliantly portrayed by Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. The villian, Denis Hopper gives one of his best performances ever.In a nustshell,Adrenalin packed.

Speed 2: So bad, it isn't even worth a review.

**Some spoilers**

I'm not normally at all interested in disaster movies, indeed I would avoid them, but I bought this set movies unseen as I admire both Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves and had seen them together in the marvellous, poignant The Lake House in which they have the most amazing empathy. Of course I'd seen Reeves being amazing in The Matrix series, and Bullock excellent in absolutely anything, and had heard such good reviews for Speed. I wasn't disappointed. Speed is so very exciting from start to finish, a relentless roller coaster, highly recommended, you will hardly breathe from start to finish! It contains one sequence towards the end of really terrifying threat which is I assume how it gained a 15 rather than 12 but at least I knew they must get out safely seeing there was a sequel with Bullock and the producers had wanted Reeves in that as well playing the same characters!

In Speed, a bus full of passengers must be kept moving over 50mph or it will be blown up by a bomb concealed on board. A villain has a grudge against a cop and has trapped the cop in the bus with a load of passengers. Bullock's character, who of course only just managed to catch the bus at the last minute, ends up driving the bus after the driver has been killed, whilst Reeves's character Jack must try to work out how to defused the bomb that's controlled by the villain from afar who keeps uttering new and horrific threats. How they all get off that bus eventually is continually ingenious. But that's not all. The villain's still at large, manages to grab the heroine and what happens next is really terrifying for a while. Five star movie.

Speed II is also immensely entertaining and I can't see why the reviews for it are so bad. Yes, it's strikingly a copy of Speed in many ways, and far too much of a coincidence that the same heroine has another boyfriend in the same line of business (although she didn't know this at first and is pretty upset when she finds out..... having dumped Jack (since Reeves refused to star in this second movie) because his lifestyle was too dangerous for her nerves.... that the new guy's work is much the same! Anyway, he books a cruise for them to help her get over the shock. Needless to say, it's quite the opposite of relaxing as the liner is packed with concealed bombs planted by a lunatic IT wizz who lost his job when it was discovered he had a terminal illness. His job was designing software for liner control, so of course he has a minicomputer along that controls everything on the liner and in typical movie nerd fashion he taps away one-handed on this mincomputer with unerring skill and can do anything with the liner. He has no compunction in killing off crew members but at least he doesn't set out to kill all the passengers, he allows them to take to the lifeboats but of course some don't make it, some people get stuck in a lift, hero and heroine are separated with her finally getting the people out of the lift and trying to keep them calm, and him gradually thwarting the villain's plans. Finally, the villain has departed in a speedboat with a huge cache of diamonds and the heroine as his prisoner, whilst the liner, locked on course, apparently unstoppable, is heading straight at an enormous oil tanker moored just off a busy holiday resort with a bay packed with little boats and people having fun. Their fun soon turns into havoc!

The finale, unlike Speed, isn't so much a shocker as the heroine has more chances to attack her abductor, and you don't see any more deaths other than that greatly deserved of the villain being blown up (the diamonds are saved, an amusing bit of poetic justice). But there's a simply hilarious sequence (perhaps good to laugh after all the tension earlier) in which the only gradually slowing liner ploughs way way way into the holiday resort. You might think that'd be horrifying and in real life it would be, but in this movie this sequence is pricelessly amusing. Perhaps it's this that put off critics. Perhaps they'd have preferred some horrific finale with all the tourists being blown up? I am very happy with what we got! Four stars for this one.

This is an excellent disk set. Glad I bought it. It won't make me go to see other disaster movies - unless Reeves or Bullock or in them, that is. I'm sad that Reeves didn't feature in Speed 2 as theatrically it would have been the ideal, but obviously he felt once was enough. I'm glad Bullock went ahead and her new lead was almost as good as Reeves.

i brought this for a xmas gift but have watched them both myself and can garantee they are excelent viewing the 1st being the best one, quick delivery and well packaged.