SPEED 2:
CRUISE CONTROL 

CAST: Sandra Bullock, Jason Patric, Willem Dafoe

DIRECTOR: Jan De Bont

PRODUCER: Jan De Bont

SCREENWRITER: Randall McCormick, Jeff Nathanson

MUSIC: Mark Mancina

When rush hour hits the water, the splash isn’t as resounding as it should be. A thriller which fails to take a specific route, Speed 2: Cruise Control is packed with terrific stunts but without an ultimate destination, with the long-drawn-out action packed climax thrown in as compensation to hold the viewer’s attention. Jason Patric is a poor substitute for Keanu Reeves and director Jan De Bont seems to have made the film with the sole intent of substituting the road with the sea. The film lacks a decent plot to hang its action sequences on and the characters are ill-developed, with Sandra Bullock’s Annie managing to raise her head above the water, probably because the writers saw the original Speed. With Willem Dafoe as the villain, one would think that the confrontations between hero and villain would be dramatic. Sadly, they are not. Dafoe’s crazy computer genius who is suffering from a terminal illness fails to come close to Dennis Hopper’s mad bomber from the earlier film, thanks to some of the silly lines given to the actor. Some more work with pen and paper would have done the film a lot of good.

Annie is back and has broken off with Jack. She is on a vacation with Alex, her new boyfriend, on a Caribbean cruise. Of course, Alex also works for a SWAT unit, just like Jack. The cruise liner, substituting for the bus, is seajacked by Dafoe’s John, a disgruntled employee who found himself without a job in the company because of his illness. Since the man has copper in his blood, he keeps some leeches as pets, which help in sucking the copper out. Once you accept this, the rest is comparatively believable stuff. Since John has designed the ship’s computer system, he knows exactly how to take over the ship. Which he does, but his final plans are thwarted by Alex.

If one avoids comparing the film to its predecessor, then the film is not all that bad as a slick Hollywood product with its premier focus being action. To its credit, the underwater camerawork is terrific and ILM’s visual effects pack a terrific punch. The action, largely towards the second half, is given momentum by Mark Mancina’s music. If only the first half could have been half as good.

Sequels aren’t equals, which is evident on cruising through the two hours of Speed 2: Cruise Control.

SPEED 2 : A COSTLY TURKEY