Entertainment Weekly (May 16, 1997)
Summer Movie Reviews
A WORD OF ADVICE: IF YOU ever see Sandra Bullock boarding a plane, train, or
automobile near you, turn around and run like hell. Speed's runaway bus made
her an out of control superstar, and now with Speed 2: Cruise Control, Bullock's
bringing her bad travel karma to the high seas. She and co-star Jason Patric,
who plays Alex, her new boyfriend (Speed's Keanu Reeves was offered the
chance to reprise his role, but declined) are caught in the middle of a
diabolical plot (masterminded by Dafoe) to take over a cruise ship, a plot
that-you guessed it-sends the ship of vacationing fools careering toward terra
fuma.
"You could say these characters of mine don't
exactly have the best luck," says Bullock. True, but they're not sniveling
victims, either "There's never a dull moment with Sandy's Speed character,"
says director Jan De Bont. "This time, she's running and jumping and
crashing and jet-skiing and swimming like crazy to save her life."
All of which made for treacherous working conditions,
particularly since De Bont prefers that his stars do as many stunts as possible
("He made me do everything but actually fly the plane," Dafoe says).
Bullock, who says a near drowning as a child made her deathly afraid of water,
was terrified when she encountered rough seas. "It wasn't a good
day," she says. And Patric was nearly put out of commission when his
motorcycle rolled down a steep hill. "I came as close as I've ever come to
meeting my Maker," he says:
Of course, that's just the stuff that looks good on
film, and De Bont worked hard to capture it all, using as many as 15 cameras
for one sequence (directors typically use four at most). Instead of using miniatures or computerized
images for the climactic scene of the boat's crash into the island of St.
Martin, De Bont built a 50-foot-tall, 600,000pound replica of the ship that
was pulled on ra,ils by a diesel engine through, the isle. "Imagine the
biggest logistical nightmare of your life," he says. "Then multiply
it by about 100. It was the kind of thing we didn't want to do twice."
As for the new leading man, Patric says he has no problem filling Reeves' shoes. ("I don't think most people can even recall the name of that character," he says. "It wasn't like I had to step in as Indiana Jones. I had no hesitation taking over ") That said, Patric admits he's not eager to jump back into the deep anytime soon. "Being wet for five months sucked. You'll never see me in water in a movie again, not even in a shower" [UPSIDE] Speed and Twister proved that De Bont can probably make an out-of control tricycle look interesting. [DOWNSIDE] Wayward cruise ships aren't half as threatening as riding an L.A. public bus.
© 1997 by Entertainment Weekly
typed out by the webmaster of The
Famous Sandra Bullock Page