Speed Kills

Based on a true-story, Speed Kills is crime film about a speedboat designer/racer named Ben Aronoff played by John Travolta. Aronoff has ties to a mob boss (played by James Remar) that he owes some money to early on. Ben is portrayed as a man reluctant to get involved in criminal activities and who is more interested in "sexy" boats than a organized crime... and yes, boats are referred to as being "sexy" an odd number of times throughout the movie. Despite Ben's desire to distance himself from some shady dealings and just focus on speedboats, in the end his lack of cooperation leads to his demise.

I like John Travolta and I grew up watching a lot of his films, many of which I still love and revisit from time to time (1998's A Civil Action is criminally underrated and I'll die on that hill). Because of that, I always give his movies the benefit of the doubt. The trailer for this one looked interesting enough, and reminded me a bit of 2017's American Made starring Tom Cruise. However, that's a really good movie and Speed Kills is not.

There are a couple solid actors in the film, but it's poorly written and haphazardly edited. It also happens to be Director Jodi Scurfield's one and only credit on IMDb which won't surprise you after watching the film. There is some family drama sprinkled throughout the first half of the film but none of the family members are given any character development. As a result, when things happen, like Ben's son being paralyzed or Ben and his wife splitting up, there is no weight to the dramatic beats. Additionally, all of the boat racing sequences which could've been interesting, are instead mostly made up of poorly stitched together montages.

This one should've been right up my alley; I'm really into films about organized crime, and I'm a fan of Travolta...

Heck, I even have his autograph hanging in my house.

Ultimately, it's not unwatchable but, I can't recommend this movie.

I give this one a 1.5 out of 5. 


If you are curious though, it is currently available for free on Prime Video for Amazon Prime members.