Speed Kills is a 2018 action film about a speedboat racing champion and multimillionaire who leads a double life that lands him in trouble with the law and drug lords.
Let’s start with the title. Seems as good as place as any. It’s one of those generic movie names that screams in all caps what’s coming is an assembly line product, lacking any real innovation, though to some degree, yeah, that has some appeal. B-movie madness in the right frame of mind is sort of fun. However, with Jodi Scurfield‘s latest addition to the heap, we get another over-the-top affair more akin to rolling back the 90s than moving into the future, making this a brief adrenaline rush for fans of such that will quickly fade into oblivion.
After making some poor choices involving mobsters in New Jersey, construction mogel Ben Aronoff (John Travolta) packs it up and heads to Miami where he finds new opportunities with speedboats. With cigarette boats his choice of machine, he takes to the racing circuit, his designs soon winning him a slew of championships, making him and partner lawyer Shelley Katz (Michael Weston) very rich men. Money brings problems of course, and soon he is under pressure from the mob with boss Meyer Lansky (James Remar) turning the screws. Worse, Lansky’s dangerous nephew, Robbie (Kellan Lutz) has his eye on Ben’s business, though Ben is distracted by the gorgeous Emily Gowen (Katheryn Winnick), a girl he hopes will give him some redemption.
It’s loosely based on a true story but loose is subjective, with just about every detail aside from the boats changed. Either way, this is high octane ambition without much else. Filling in much of the run time with lengthy boat races and lots of snap cuts here and there, the film is surprisingly devoid of momentum, distracted by a few subplots that don’t have much weight, including a bit with Ben’s hospitalized son.
Naturally, Ben is a ladies man, and we get all sorts of women flocking to the charismatic showman, but these moments are never all the convincing. Travolta is full on Travolta, which has its benefits but in this hairpiece and booth tan, is a bit hokey, even for him, though of course, like any decent Nicolas Cage movie, is the only reason to tune in. The problem is, we never really get invested in what Ben does or why, his questionable decisions hardly fleshed out or made to have much consequence. It’s not explained in any satisfying way why he makes any of his choices. Better to shows his fast boats skipping along the waves.
Things get complicated the further in we get, with Ben in all sort of trouble, but like many movies where bad guys are painted to earn our sympathies, we sort of root for him, though mostly out of exasperation. The action isn’t all bad and sort of feels like an homage to classic Miami Vice, though that might be just flashback triggers from seeing cigarette boats and crime. Unfortunately, there isn’t any charm behind the action and the film lacks punch, thinking a flashy style and a goosed up Travolta enough. Sometimes that’s all it takes, but not so here.