Speed 2 Cruise Control
1997
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Jason Patric, Williem Dafoe
Genre: Disaster Thriller
Worldwide Box Office Gross: over $164 million
Plot: A computer hacker breaks into the computer system of the Seabourn Legend cruise liner & sets it speeding on a collision course into a gigantic oil tanker
'No Keanu, No Can Do'
Speed 2: Cruise Control is an action sequel that talks itself up as this big deal, but when it all comes together it is nothing but all talk but hardly any substance. I've heard and read so many bad things about this movie and how it pales in comparison to Speed 1, and that it sucked without Keanu Reeves.
It's the first film but it's set on the boat - or to be precise a cruise ship this side of P&O, yet it has little of the wit, charm, watchability and the believability of the prequel. Well, it's much less like the first film: Speed 2 is like a romantic drama/comedy with action scenes added. It's weird. If James Cameron's Titanic had a love child, it would be called Speed 2.
Annie and Alex are in a relationship, - or so that is what is to be believed as Patric and Bullock have no chemistry together, unlike the pairing of Reeves and Bullock which should have been that way with this film.
Sandra Bullock is her usual cute self and she didn't do much that was wrong and her character is terribly written, but Jason Patric is no match for Keanu's Jack. And although Keanu (rightly) jumped ship, probably because of how lame the plot for this film was, the chemistry he had with Sandra in the original Speed was on a whole different, and superior level and this was definitely missing in this movie and plus, it's something that just couldn't be replicated with Jason Patric. He lacks charm and presence to bring his character to life.
The drab conversations by the couples were boring, Willem Defoe hams it up as the main bad guy, but he had none of the smarts of Dennis Hopper's Howard. The plot with the boat in place of the bus is ludicrous, the acting and the script is below par and most of the dialogue is poor. & finally, the action is mediocre and nowhere as good. There are some bad accents from a few characters with some over-exaggerated performances. I wouldn't have minded if it was set in a commuter train, a plane, heck as the title is called Speed, we might as well have rollerskaters and rollerbladers. But on an incredibly slow-moving cruise ship/ocean liner? I think not.
Speed 2 is probably noted also as the last non-romantic comedy/drama Sandra Bullock has starred in, and the sheer failure of this movie and the trashing it received meant that since then she has appeared in nothing but dramas and rom-coms. Credit to her for admitting to this day that she regrets having anything to do with this movie, so much so she even laughs at her own performance. Though I do buy her excuse that she had to do this film so that she could get Hope Floats financed.
This film takes a massive dump on Speed; less fun as this truly was, Cruise Control was the sequel fans and admirers of the first movie that minus Keanu Reeves, they truly didn't want.
Final Verdict:
I am not in need for this 'Speed'. Speed 2: Cruise Control is a hot mess and clusterbomb of a movie that as such it lacks any of the charm and wonder of the predecessor.
Cruise Control has lost control and all sense of what made the first film great. The writing was on the wall as soon as we learned that Keanu Reeves - who is a so-so actor- wasn't reprising his role as Jack. He was great in the first Speed and his absence was clearly felt throughout as I watched this. I missed his charm. Quite frankly, Jan De Bont shouldn't have bothered and gone ahead with Speed 2 if he had to make do without Keanu.
Lauded as one of the worst movie sequels ever in the history of film, it even won a Golden Raspberry, & costing over 5 times to make compared to the first movie, Speed 2 is a follow-up disaster and a trifling one in the making.
Overall:
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