Director: Jan de Bont
Writer: Randall McCormick, Jeff Nathanson (Screenplay) Jan de Bont, Randall McCormick (Story)
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Jason Patric, Willem Dafoe, Temuera Morrison, Brian McCardie, Christine Firkins
Plot: A computer hacker breaks into the computer system of the Seabourn Legend cruise liner and sets it speeding on a collision course into a gigantic oil tanker.
Tagline – Rush hour hits the water.
Runtime: 2 Hours 1 Minute
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Passable Action Film
Story: Speed 2: Cruise Control starts as we meet Annie (Bullock) still trying to get her driving license back, long past dating Jack (Because Keanu was smart enough not to come back) and has moved onto what she thinks is a quiet cop role of Alex Shaw (Patric) who is actually a SWAT officer too.
To break the tension, Alex takes Annie on a cruise, which happens to have John Geiger (Dafoe) onboard that has his own plans for the cruise. As John takes over the boat, he plans to evacuate the passengers which will leave him the ship, but Alex will get to the bottom of this and try to save the day.
Thoughts on Speed 2: Cruise Control
Characters – Annie is back, she still can’t drive and now she has fallen for another risk-taking cop in Alex, this is a character that strangely feels iconic for the genre, while not being bad character or being weak, she doesn’t do much over than panic. Alex is the risk-taking cop, this sounds familiar doesn’t it? He will do anything to save the day. John Geiger is the villain of the piece, he has made his plan and wants to operate through his plan, though he didn’t plan for Alex. Strangely he never plans to kill anyone.
Performances – Sandra Bullock is fine in her role here, she works for these films. Jason Patric just lacks the charisma Keanu had in the first one which doesn’t make you care about his character. Willem Dafoe is one of the most reliable villains in Hollywood, it is strange that he is good, but the character is largely forgettable.
Story – The story is just like the first Speed, it has a criminal that takes a vehicle with the promise to kill everyone if demands aren’t met. This is the old tried and tested formula without being overly impressive and never reaches the levels of the first film. it does everything it needs to do while being easy to watch from start to finish.
Action/Crime/Romance – The action sequences for the most part are entertaining even if they are overly long at times, like the sequence crashing into the island, just seems to go on and on. The romance involved is just more of the same mostly tagged on too.
Settings – The film being set on the bottle, tries to do something different, but it just lacks the tension the first one has.
Special Effects – The effects for the most part are terrible and even in places laughable.
Scene of the Movie – While long the boat crashing into the harbor is fun watch.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The random dog sequence.
Final Thoughts – This is a film that gets a lot of bashing, it does everything it needs to for an action film, that just isn’t on the same level as the first film.
Overall: Sequel that works well enough.
Rating
