It’s been a long time since I sat down for a viewing of this box office champion. If I’m not mistaken it’s the film that put Keanu Reeves on the map as more than just a guy from the Bill and Ted movies. It gave him some clout in tinsel town.
How about Sandra Bullock. The beauty with the girl next door looks who captured the hearts of all of young guys at the time. She kind of still does that to me.
Then there is of course Dennis Hopper chewing up the scenery like only he can.
I never saw this one at the theater but am pretty sure this was a VHS rental in my home back in the day. Watching it now I’m impressed with parts and not so much with other bits.
My son was the first to comment that with no CGI this made for a much more pleasurable experience. I couldn’t agree more and I have to wonder if my own opinions have influenced my number one son Ethan. Then again he’s old enough now to make his own decisions. Seriously though if this film were made today……what am I saying! Hollywood probably has the remake in the works already with computer animators standing by.
As I was about to say, if it was made today they’d have a bus in front of a blue screen filling in the background with cartoon imagery for all the dramatics and even our leading man would be made to look like a cartoon character and doing way to many leaps and bounds from the underside of the bus to the roof and back through a sliding window. About the only time we’d see the bus on a real city street is when it pulls up to a stop picking up the unfortunate souls about to be held hostage for Hopper’s pleasure.
Since it had been so long since I watched this, I found it pretty much as thrilling as the first time I’d seen it. I haven’t been numbed by too many viewings. And let’s not forget it has Jeff Daniels in there as Keanu’s partner. Jeff is always fun to watch and is about to return to the screen with Jim Carey for another round of being dumb.
Bits I didn’t like(shaky acting at times) I won’t dwell on too much as I mainly look for the enjoyable parts in films. But I have to say I am sure glad I wasn’t on the bus when it made it’s fifty foot leap across a stretch of bridge that wasn’t finished. That was stretching it a bit tooooooo far.
Holds up well for a great popcorn viewing experience.
Mike's Take On the Movies 
Written by Elwy Yost’s son Graham. Fun movie, I haven’t seen it since release either, have to revisit sometime.
I was going to mention that about the Yost connection and forgot. That was big news to us Canadians at the time.