…well that’s the theme of the movie Speed, one of my all time favorite. I have seen this movie so many times that some two weeks back when I was brushing my teeth, I heard this “Sam…Sam…” voice of a female and immediately I could recollect the scene where Sandra Bullock would be driving the bus and Keanu Reeves would be addressing the passengers. Though the movie theme is quite simple I liked the way the movie was taken keeping you interested for the full length (except some of the conversations between Sandra Bullock and Keanu, she would be asking some really dumb questions). The movie got released sometime in 1995 when I had just come to Chennai. Devi theathre, then the biggest and best theatre in Chennai, had got itself renovated with Dolby Systems. I in fact watched the movie with a brand new VCR player that we had bought at my aunt’s place when two of my cousins studying abroad had come for vacation.
The freeway scenes were just awesome for me those days. I couldn’t believe that roads could be that wide and long. Scenes from helicam showing the bus number as 2525, cops blocking certain access roads for the bus to take a sharp right turn are still fresh in memories. The scene where a helicam just pans out from the top of the bus showing the police vehicles retreating and the bus accelerating at full speed trying to cross the 50 feet gap in the freeway is still awesome for me. And it was a brilliant performance from the villain too controlling everything from his living room. He just depicted a typical mean character and just meant business. Though I didn’t like the elevator and train drama of the movie, the sequences that happen in the bus and the long freeway shots compensated for them. Even after some 13 years since it released I would still sit and watch it if aired in one of these movie channels š
Raghu's Ramblings 