Speed 2: Snooze Control
The Reason Fast-Forward Was Invented

Pop quiz, hotshot. You've made a movie called Speed. Once the movie made over $50 million dollars, everyone wanted a sequel. If the sequel makes less than $50 million, your career blows up. What do you do? What do you do? If you're 20th Century Fox, you throw out everything that made Speed a great action movie.

Speed 2: Cruise Control has lost the very heart of being an action movie. It is ridiculously predictable, highly improbable, and downright tedious. Only one thing makes Speed 2 mildly interesting. Sandra Bullock returns as the charming Annie Porter, the erstwhile bus driver who helped Keanu Reeves save the day in Speed. Although everyone admits she stole the original show even she can't save the sequel.

While so many sequels run the risk of copying the original, Speed 2 makes sure it does something original by taking the chase to the water. In the process, the desperation of the first movie is diluted. The villain is nowhere near as ferocious. The hero is cold and emotionless. And our heroine, Annie, is nearly forgotten.

Speed 2 has neither the impending sense of danger nor the frantic circumstances of Speed. Jason Patric plays Alex Shaw, Annie's new love and a member of LAPD's "Suicide Squad." Patric portrays Alex with too much cool, and he is always in control of the situation. Although he is constantly one step behind the villainous Geiger (Willem DaFoe) we never imagine for even a moment that he could lose. Perhaps if Geiger had indiscriminately blown up a few people for kicks we would have worried a little more. Instead, DaFoe plays Geiger like a bad Bond villain -- always making speeches about vengeance but never appearing seriously dangerous. Geiger's motives are likewise unclear. Is it about revenge or money?

There are more than a few incongruous problems with the script itself and its use of computers. As a techno-nerd, I can tell you that the things Geiger was doing with his computer were (to say the least) fantastic. At one point, the computer asked him when a command should be executed, and Geiger typed "NOW". Excuse me? The computer takes word commands for time references? Very interesting indeed.

My biggest complaint concerns how the writers of Speed 2 have characterized Annie. If I had been Bullock I would have raised heck, but she obviously picked the film for monetary reasons and not artistic ones. It is sad they degraded her character to little more than a whining hostage by the end of the movie. She has only two scenes in which the strong-willed woman from the first movie shines through.

There were two good jokes in this movie, both references to the original. I won't spoil them for you, on the off chance you're desperate for entertainment and rent this someday.

MY RATING: 2 out of 10.

RATED:
RUN TIME: 123 min.

Speed 2: Snooze Control The Reason Fast-Forward Was Invented

Speed 2: Snooze Control
The Reason Fast-Forward Was Invented