tm Does the QT 20 Part 19: Speed

She thought Keanu would get an Oscar first.

Speed (dir. Jan de Bont – 1994)

Is it surprising that Keanu Reeves appears in two movies on this list? The guy is universally panned as being unable to act but yet, accordingly to the imdb.com, of his 56 movies, 14 are rated 7/10 or higher. So, is he just lucky or just what does he add to a movie? I don’t have an answer....

Speed has Keanu and Jeff Daniels as Los Angeles cops trying to catch a bad guy, wonderfully played by Dennis Hopper, who tries to crash an elevator full of people in an extortion attempt. The bad guy gets away but gets to fight another day; he resurfaces by threatening to blow up a city bus full of people. Sandra Bullock’s on the bus and becomes entangled in it all when she takes over for the injured bus driver. Attempts are made to defuse the bomb on the bus, all the while trying to track down the bad guy.

It’s not entirely unpredictable – Keanu and Sandra hook up, Keanu drops some wretched one-liners, a few things get blowed up real good, etc. – but it’s tense and it keeps moving. Sandra Bullock is actually somewhat endearing as the caught-in-the-crossfire passenger while everybody else is not asked to do anything unspectacular – Keanu and Jeff are good as cops because they don’t need to emote and yes, Dennis Hopper is just semi-unhinged and thankfully stays that way, not going for the easy psycho-meltdown.

tm sez: 6/10

(Note: that it has taken so long to post tm vs. the Tarantino 20 is not tm's fault but mine. The series will conclude soon, when I get around to writing a rebuttal of his final entry, which I will write after I write my rebuttal to Colin's review of Shutter Island.)

tm Does the QT 20 Part 6: The Matrix

The Matrix (dir. Andy & Larry Wachowski – 1999)

Yeah, this movie did really change things.

And, yes, as QT says, the two sequels just about ruined the whole thing. Those two big steamy piles of turd are very utterly unwatchable (though millions did) and a sign that the Wachowski’s opted to let the money be an excuse for creativity (a la George Lucas and new Star Wars episodes). Animatrix is hands-down better than the two sequels.

The Matrix is the answer to the hypothetical question of what if what we think is real, isn’t. According to the Wachowski’s, the human race is subservient to robots who feed us the illusion of reality while harnessing our body’s energy to further the illusion. The special effects are extremely well done and is the movie that put ‘bullet time’ on the map (even though it was first debuted in that super-crappy movie Blade; see review above).

Acting-wise, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. C’mon – think of who’s in the movie and ask yourself what else they’ve done of note. They’re all fine actors but unremarkable. Surprisingly, Keanu Reeves does appear twice on the QT 20…

The dvd has plenty of features, including some inane commentaries but some nice ‘making of’ pieces, especially as the whole ‘bullet time’ thing was very new.

tm sez: 8/10