Movie Details
| Title: | Speed | |
| Director: | Jan de Bont | |
| Year: | 1994 | |
| Genre: | Action | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 07.27.24 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 07.27.24 | Cinemagic | Pop Quiz, Hot Shot! For longtime readers (read: me) this entry will be a throwback. For one, I saw this in a theater, and there's experiential stuff surrounding the screening that's also worth noting, so buckle up for a journal-style entry. This year for my birthday we took a trip to the pacific northwest. Part of this was because it's always nice to escape the Texas heat this time of year, but this time was compounded by my work wanting me to drive to San Antonio the friday before and Molly's parents offering to meet us out there because they were keen to see the area as well. So everything melded together into a road trip where we flew to Seattle, met up with Molly's parents, drove down the Washington coast, cut across northern Oregon to Mount Hood, then back up past Mount Rainier. For my own interests along the way, we stopped in Astoria to see the jail where the Fratelli's escaped in The Goonies (it's now a film museum with the Jeep used in the film parked outside), Down the coast was Haystack rock (the rock that fits into the coin in The Goonies and also I think where the ship takes its last sail at the end of the film... I'm not sure it's been quite a while since I've seen it). Near Mount Hood we stayed a night at the Timberline Lodge AKA the exteriors for the Overlook in Kubrick's The Shining. Then back up in Washington we drove by the RR Diner (now Twede's) in North Bend as seen in Twin peaks and stayed a night at the Salish resort AKA the exterior for The Great Northern from the show (the one near the falls seen in the show's intro). Oh, and we also stopped at the spot in the road where the "Welcome to Twin Peaks" sign was and saw the rail bridge that Ronette Pulaski walks across in the pilot episode too. All of this was great (and expensive, thanks to Molly's parents!). In the middle of that, I spent an afternoon in Portland visiting my friend Grant with whom I share a birthday. It actually worked out great; he rented a cool single-screen theater for a private screening with his friends and invited me to join. It's been since the pandemic that i've hung out with movie geeks in person so that was quite fun. The theater is called Cinemagic and looked to be an independant theater programming cool rep screenings. Grant's original plan was to run his 35MM print of Fight Club but due to logistical reasons he had to choose between two films the theater already had built up: Total Recall or Speed. He chose Speed. I'd have willingly watched anything since Grant's tastes in movies generally aligns with my own, but Speed was a fine choice. I must have seen this since it's original theatrical run - I own it on DVD - but can't remember when I last watched it so it's been at least twenty years. What struck me about the film was how much action movies have changed since the 90s. Some of the things in Speed are laughable by today's standards but other things are remarkable. For instance, the one-liners and pat patter between Reeves and Jeff Daniels is borderline insufferable to my modern ear, but it also plays directly into that post-80s machismo. It's a little early Tarantino, a little Simpson/Bruckheimer, a little Joel Silver. But so telegraphed in terms of foreshadowing and Chekov's guns that movies of today would probably not be so bombastic about. Like Dennis Hopper's villain is arguably more nuanced than his Waterworld character... arguably. Also, the beginning credit sequence was wild. It was like 8 minutes of staring at an elevator going down. It felt to me like an overture to a David Lean epic where we listen to all the themes in the score before the curtain raises. You'd just never see that today. On the other hand, all the action came from a pre-cgi era of practical effects that seems exorbitantly expensive to today's eyes. Like extras scaling buildings or helicopters flying through highways or explosions in public areas, shutting down Hollywood Boulevard to make a sparking subway car slide to a stop right in front of the Chinese Theater. The distinct lack of CGI dust to cover up the seams on clearly digital shots is jarring to me even though I remember this movie not especially standing out as groundbreaking or innovative in its day. This was the state of the industry back then. Not to say this was a B-movie or anything. I remember being psyched to see it on opening weekend, wondering how they could stop the bus without it exploding like the premise of the movie was a kind of puzzle or riddle to be solved. Vivid memories of being in the mall theater with the center aisle, chomping oil-soaked popcorn while pre-digital speakers blasted the theme. Peak teenager shit. So it was an A-movie and it made a ton of money as I remember, certainly redefined Keanu as an action star (after Point Break set him up... can't forget Point Break. I should watch Point Break.) and this movie broke Sandra Bullock out into stardom (although she was memorable in Demolition Man... can't forget Demolition Man. I should watch Demolition Man). It just wasn't a phenomenon like Terminator 2 or Independence Day. I found that I liked it all these years later. The ridiculous bits worked on me as humor, the funny bits really worked on me - Alan Ruck as the tourist especially - and the action was engaging enough. Jan de Bont's dizzying "action guy" camera circling everyone and constantly moving also proved somewhat prescient, giving hints of visual ADD that folks like Tony Scott and Paul Greengrass would go overboard with 10 years later. I also thought the archetypes presented by all the character actors on the bus were great. Loved when Keanu called the one guy "Gigantor", knew that Beth Grant, whose made a career of being nervous and cagey, would be nervous and cagey. They did a good job of filling in blanks with solid character actors. It's almost like a comfort when we see everyone on the bus and can instantly identify all of them. Would it have been better if Keanu hadn't said "He lost his head" when Sandy Bullock asked her what happened to Dennis Hopper? Absolutely, but it is what it is, which is Speed. Afterward everyone went to the bar next door (also owned by the guy who owns the theater) and Grant had gifts and cupcakes while everyone discussed the film, other movies, movies in general, etc. At first it was funny hearing people discuss Speed as they would any other rep screening like 2001 or Lawrence of Arabia, but I get it. I met a few of Grant's other friends which was great. They have a film club that I'd known about previously because Grant shared some trailer reels they'd put together during the pandemic when everything had to be digital. It seems like if I was local that'd 100% be a thing that I'd attend, or want to attend while I sat at home playing video games. In any case, it felt good to be a small fish in this particular pond again, with many of Grant's friends knowing more about the industry (both production and exhibition) than me and still up on trends and seeing all the latest releases. Joe told me that Wolverine vs. Deadpool was devoid of identity which is a real shame. On paper that film should be a home run but with Shawn Levy directing... I guess these thoughts will have to wait till I watch it myself and it gets its own journal entry. We also talked briefly about a "Miami Nice" cut which combines favored elements of both the theatrical and director's cuts of Michael Mann's Miami Vice into one bootleg edition which also replaces the nu-metal Phil Collins cover with the original. We were talking about how crazy and cool it was that the cut exists and apparently Mann's camp knows about it and they mentioned the titular podcast has also adopted it as their preferred cut (i haven't heard any Miami Nice podcast so I didn't know what they were talking about but i guess it's a podcast and it has that name and they like this cut even though they didn't make it). I write all of this out because it brought to mind the Star Wars 4k77 cut (and the Despecialized editions that preceeded it) and the general possibility for fans to re-edit and re-mix movies now to a quality comparable to the original and there also exists means to distribute it better than bootleg VHS dupes. Since the industry itself is kind of imploding nobody's really minding the register either so it's creating an exciting foundation for fans and cineastes to really go wild if they want. I find that pretty cool. After a while I had to go so we could continue our trip, but this was a great little blip of movie geekdom to have that I enjoyed quite a bit. |
