July 17–24, 1997

movie shorts

Speed 2: Cruise Control

Jan de Bont's Speed 2 is crowded with stunts, explosions, breakneck action-editing and allusions to, among other films, The Poseidon Adventure (people in evening wear getting wet). Sandra Bullock returns as the game and winsome Annie, once again thrust into dire circumstances. When she and boyfriend Jason Patric (who's a hotdog LAPD SWAT guy) take a Caribbean cruise to "get to know each other," they encounter psycho Willem Dafoe, a cranky software wiz who designed the ship's entire computer system, developed a fatal disease and was fired. His elaborate scheme for vengeance against his former employers includes rigging the ship to crash into an oil tanker, stealing a collection of fabulous jewels and bulging his eyes wide whenever dialogue lags (which is fairly often). Bullock and Patric seem to be extremely good sports, given how little they have to work with (the film is clever, but strangely unengaging). Glenn Plummer and Joe Morton appear briefly, reprising their roles from Speed.

—Cindy Fuchs