Film Scouts Reviews: Speed 2: Cruise Control

"Speed 2: Cruise Control"

by Leslie Rigoulot

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Everyone will enjoy "Speed 2" except me. Maybe I was just so blown away by "Speed" that I had expectations too high to reach. From the opening credits to the last scene, director Jan De Bont had my undivided attention in the 1994 original. Nothing seemed implausible, even though it was. But this time I found myself contemplating how far into a bay a huge cruise ship could actually go before it ran aground in the sand, instead of watching De Bont's plot unfold. But maybe I'm just too nit-picky because everyone around me seemed to be swept up in Sandra Bullock's return as Annie and the introduction of Jason Patric as her romantic interest.

As the girl who took control of a runaway bus, Annie is now in a runaway relationship with hunky Jason Patric, a SWAT cop. Running away to the Caribbean gives them the chance to run afoul of Willem Dafoe, the deranged man trying to rob/crash the ship. Faster than you can say "Poseidon Adventure", Jason Patric has figured the guy out and is on to foiling his plan with Sandra Bullock's help. All three do a good job. The males had a positive reaction to Bullock in a couple of skimpy outfits; females had the same reaction to Patric's open shirts and tux. But that isn't enough. Even bringing back Glenn Plummer as Maurice didn't add the spark "Speed 2" needed. Conceived while De Bont was working on "Twister", "Speed 2" relies too heavily on tried-and-true means of making us care about the characters, relies too heavily on big explosive effects, and relies way too much on the chemistry between Bullock and Patric. But I'm sure it will be able to keep its head above water in this summer's deluge of films and maybe "Speed 3" will be more to my liking. Rated R, Twentieth Century Fox

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