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What a hell of a first date.
Boy meets girl on speeding, booby-trapped bus. Boy and girl save all other passengers on bus, then boy successfully saves girl again. Bad guy dies and boy and girl share first kiss in a smashed-up subway train.
Brainless but entertaining, the film "Speed" is a refreshing spin on the well-worn terrorist-takes-hostages theme.
The action takes off as bomb-squad officer Jack Travin, played by Keanu Reeves, manages to rescue 13 people trapped in a sabotaged elevator. In the process, he causes the saboteur to lose roughly $3 million in ransom, which triggers a nasty response from the bad guy, played by Dennis Hopper: He wires a bus to explode if it goes faster than 50 miles per hour then slows to below that speed.
The plot moves faster than the bus, which is probably the reason it was one of the top-grossing films in the U.S. this summer. The attraction certainly wasn't the predictable repartee.
The acting, while not spectacular, is solid and enjoyable to watch. Reeves becomes more and more believable as the movie progresses. Maybe someday soon it will be possible to watch him without being reminded of the complete idiot he played in "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure."
Sandra Bullock as Annie, Jack's love interest and substitute driver when the original driver is shot, is perfectly composed and appropriately upset in turn.
Hopper plays Howard Payne rather indifferently -- he is not bad, but you keep wishing they would get back to what was happening on the bus.
It's an action flick, not an adventure in intellect. Whatever its flaws, it will keep you glued to your seat for two hours as a terrific antidote to bad Moscow weather.
"Speed" plays through Oct. 20 at the Americom House of Cinema in the Radisson-Slavjanskaya Hotel. Showtime is Monday through Friday at 8:30 P.M., Saturday and Sunday at 5 P.M. and 8:30 P.M.Ticket prices are the ruble equivalent of $7 or $7.50 by credit card.
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