Customer Reviews

Exit Speed

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I watched "Exit Speed" on Demand when it came out because for one I Love Desmond Harrington "Wrong Turn" and the Synopsis sounded like something I would enjoy and I did enjoy it"alot".
If you want to watch a Vicious gang of sociopathic blood thirsty bikers that terrorize anyone who gets in their way then you will like this movie.
I was surprised that for a movie that started off without a dark feel to it that there was so much blood and some gore.. This combined with GREAT characters that you get emotionally caught up in , great actors, plenty of action and a fierce battle for control and survival make it hard to blink. I was totally engrossed in this movie I have actually watched it three times already because in my opinion it has all the elements I need for a movie to have multiple watch-a-bility.
Regardless if some of the details might not be spot on I HIGHLY recommend it.

"Exit Speed" is one of those ridiculously plotted pieces of bad movie madness that pits a resourceful band of strangers against an unlikely threat. Borrowing on every action movie cliche and built on disaster movie characterizations, "Exit Speed" is not positioned to be a great film. However, it does seeks to entertain on the most fundamental level. And within the confines of these limited goals and a viewer's limited expectations, "Exit Speed" is actually a fitfully fun and brutal ride. Assembling a cast of unknowns with big name talent such as Fred Ward, Lea Thompson, and Desmond Harrington (or do I overstate "big name"?), the movie accomplishes its mission, in my estimation, simply because I liked the characters. True, they are more a collection of usual types than actual people, but the appealing cast brought enough to the screenplay to make me actually root for their survival.

On a Christmas Eve in Texas, a bus encounters a band of motorcycle marauders. As the villains taunt the bus, a fatal accident occurs and opens the Pandora's Box of violent retribution. The plucky and scrappy passengers include Thompson as a single mother, Harrington as a deadbeat dad, a soldier on the run (Julia Mond) and various other expected types. The sadistic gang of murderous bikers are one of the delights of bad movie plotting--they lack any sense of reality, they exist only to terrorize. In fact, they aren't even characters in this piece--they have zero motivation or even dialogue--they're just evil incarnate. That may be why I don't like rural Texas! The survivors band together in an old junkyard with little but their cunning, their smarts, and their determination--and it's an all out war for survival.

Mond is actually the lead in this piece, and she has a believable strength and a likability factor. Fred Ward, trailing this AWOL soldier, provides his usual charm to the silliness. I also like that one of the young women on the bus was an archer, great stuff huh? But it is the gloriously vital Lea Thompson who makes this all soar (doing her best Shelly Winters in "The Poseidon Adventure" sacrifice act). To see Thompson take on a machete wielding biker babe is stunning entertainment! No doubt about it. "Exit Speed" is not going to win awards for originality, but I can tell you this--I expected absolutely nothing from the picture and yet was thoroughly entertained. That pleasant surprise is enough for me to make this a recommendation as a well composed B-movie extravaganza. KGHarris, 11/10.

Forget the negative reviews. This film isn't for arthouse buffs, but people who like a good thrill ride. The main charactors are very likable, the acting is good and the action is plenty. Highly recommended!

Great plot. Interesting characters. Lots of surprises. Fabulous motorcycle stunts. Edge of the seat stuff.

I stumbled into watching this movie (long story) and ended up really enjoying it. Unlike most action films (and granted, I don't watch that many), this had really well-drawn characters. Lots of great moments. Kelli Hancock as the tough-talking chick in a reindeer headband. Wally White as the guy on the bus who sells soap to hotels. Confused Roy Samuelson who opens the movie. Texas sheriff Asante Jones. (thank goodness for imdb, huh?)

I squealed two or three times during the film and even got teary once (Lea Thompson!). A surprising find!

I happened to see this by renting it because the plotline sounded interesting. Although I didn't expect a hit because it is considered a B movie, I loved it. Personally I enjoy action movies with a mixed group of people that need to pitch in together to fight off a common foe. In this case a crazed biker gang. A hodge podge of people board a bus in Texas not realizing several will die getting to their destination. The bus is attacked by some bikers. The events that follow cause the bikers to decide to trail the bus for kicks because they are so doped up they really don't care about anything or anybody. As we know fast moving buses don't always stay on the road so the rag tag group must seek shelter in a junkyard to avoid the attack of the killer bikers. I don't expect this movie to earn critical acclaim, but the average action thriller fan won't be disappointed.

Fred Ward isn't on the bus but is a military officer after an AWOL soldier that is on the bus. Ward doesn't have as large a part as the other notable actors but every scene you see him in you wished they used him more. The key roles are the bus passengers and they are all excellent in their parts. Although the overall storyline isn't new, we have all seen bikers attack families, other gangs, et cetera, but what they do with their little group is great. I never quite knew what to expect and when each passengers talent comes to light you should be entertained with how it is done. I have to say I enjoyed this as much as Speed (Widescreen Edition) even though it obviously didn't have the same kind of starpower or budget. Needless to say I immediately ordered it after watching it. Great movie and I see me revisting it regularly.

CA Luster

Exit SpeedI received this DVD expecting a B Class movie but it turned out to be a Class A film. The movie was a low budget but the actors did a top notch job. I personally know Everett Sifuentes. He has a done many bit parts in many films. The rest of the cast, Fred Ward, Lea Thompson as well as all the other cast member carried the movie to the highest. It won't win any Oscars but it will entertain all who watch it.It is a story of a group of strangers thrown into a situation of life or death. By virtue of the danger they found them selves in made them become a team in putting down the renegade bikers who were out to kill them just for the fun of it. Watch it but don't make up your mind about the film until the end. It has a nice twist at the end.

This is a great movie! Lots of action, crazy stunts, exciting story. I really recommend this movie for a fun evening.

Exit Speed (2008) is an action adventure that starts out with some genuine promise, but soon crashes into a wall, as the situation that dominates the vast majority of the movie, is too illogical and unrealistic to stand up under any kind of critical examination.

Lea Thompson (Back to the Future, Jane Doe) and Fred Ward (Remo Williams), are the most well-known among the cast of this Sabbatical Pictures production. It's Christmas eve, and Archibald Sparks (Ward), a military policeman, is on the trail of Merideth Cole (Julie Mond), an army deserter who is aboard a bus travelling west across Texas. Out on the open road, the bus encounters a motorcycle gang, and gets involved in an incident where people are killed. Trying to escape the gang, the bus heads off the highway, and crashes at a rundown abandoned junkyard. The passengers take refuge behind wrecked cars, and piles of junk, while the motorcycle gang surrounds the group.

Maudie (Thompson), Sam (Desmond Harrington), "Coach" (Gregory Jbara), and Annabel (Alice Greczyn) are among the travelers suddenly in a life and death situation. There is no cell phone coverage, so the trapped passengers can't call for help. The bikers, supposedly send for reinforcements, and are content to wait around and trip on meth. The survivors, who just have a single pistol, somehow manage to hold off the entire armed gang, for the rest of the day.

After sunset, things get busy. Annabel has skills as an archer. After recovering her bow and arrows from the bus, she provides deadly cover fire, while Maudine makes a break to get help. Maudine soon develops a killer instinct, and finds the bikers nest (presumably where the reinforcements were supposedly to have come from?), and Sparks, who is still on Merideth's trail. Rather than trying to call the police, they fearlessly decide to take on the bikers themselves.

The biker gang never say a word to the passengers, throughout the entire movie. The idea may be to present them as an unspeaking, mysterious menace, but they mostly come off as mindless idiots. Perhaps they too high to do anything. The gang are almost completely inept, although they occasionally do manage to shoot straight, and take out a passenger who carelessly exposes themselves to fire.

Director Scott Ziehl's film does have decent production values. Unfortunately most of what happens is like a bad cartoon. The cast does what they can, but there are major issues with the screenplay. Meredith takes a bullet in the gut, which turns into only a "flesh wound". The metal sides of the bus appear to be bulletproof. The survivors spend most of their time arguing, accomplishing next to nothing. That anyone survives, is quite remarkable. Killing people is apparently not that big a thing, as at the conclusion, the passengers are all free to enjoy a wonderful Christmas Day.

This film has been recreated over and over through all these years. The plot is very elemental(As a amatter of fact, In the early nineties Jean Claude van Damme made his apperance in "Lionheart" exploring a very similar device). A draft resister female runs away from his implacable chaser in the opening sequence, and so she will decide to take a bus which suffers a regrettable incident (just at Christmas eve: let it snow, let it snow in Hard to die 2) with a member of a bunch of outlaw jackals on their motocycles in the middle of nowhere. The rest of the bunch will undertake a ceaseless plan of revenge and the violence will make its appearance until the last shot.

Most of violent sequences were filmed at night. But in general the film goes turning down until becomes unbearable because its predictability.