Speed 2: Cruise Control

A seriously inferior sequel, Speed 2: Cruise Control follows Sandra Bullock’s Annie as she and her new beau (Jason Patric’s Alex) spring into action after a madman (Willem Dafoe’s John) takes command of a crowded cruise ship. It’s a fairly underwhelming premise that’s employed to progressively hit-and-miss effect by Jan de Bont, as the filmmaker, working from a script by Randall McCormick and Jeff Nathanson, delivers a mostly momentum-free thriller that fares especially poorly within its wheel-spinning, uninvolving midsection – with the arms-length atmosphere perpetuated by a curious (and ill-advised) emphasis on the heroes’ waterlogged exploits within the hijacked ship (ie it’s just tedious stuff, ultimately). And although Dafoe offers up a larger-than-life performance that remains a rare highlight within the proceedings, Speed 2: Cruise Control contains exceedingly (and distressingly) little character development for its two central protagonists – to the extent that Patric’s figure comes off as bland and one-note and Bullock’s Annie is once again relegated to the damsel-in-distress position (really?). The big-budget, over-the-top finale, in which the aforementioned cruise ship crashes into a small town, is admittedly not terrible, yet it’s hardly enough to compensate for what’s otherwise (and mostly) a pointless followup that contains few (if any) of the top-notch attributes of its vastly superior predecessor.

** out of ****