Matisse van Rossum’s review published on Letterboxd:
Man, this is gonna be another one of those reviews that makes me unpopular. I guess I need to preface this the same way I did Die Hard: I'm not much of an action movie fan. I never really have been, although I can definitely appreciate the appeal. My roommate and another one of my friends showed me Speed (because I had never seen it before), presenting it as a good bad movie, which I almost always enjoy. Unfortunately, I found myself more exasperated with this film than anything else.
It feels like it was made by a 15-year-old. Every aspect, from concept, to writing, to cinematography, it just oozes adolescence. I guess part of why I didn't really like it is because it took me so long to watch it. I think it's one of those nostalgia things for a lot of people, and since I didn't have the benefit of that, I wasn't buying it. I just found myself frustrated at its repetitive nature, lazy script, and uninspired cinematography. This being said, it does deliver some great one-liners, and if you know me, you know I'm a sucker for one-liners, so I was able to get a small amount of enjoyment out of it.
Maybe I need to give it another viewing and try to look at it from everyone else's perspective. I must be missing something, and I want to experience the same effect that Speed gives to so many other people that I just didn't get. Maybe one of these days I'll try to watch it again and write another review if it impacted me any differently. Until then, I guess I'll just have to give it its only less than 4 star rating, and if that offends you, I'm sorry.