Exit Speed Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Exit Speed Blu-ray Movie Review

Emphasis on "Speed." And a few other movies.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 12, 2015

Exit Speed is a modest little movie that rises above its meager budget but still doesn't quite escape type tedium. It's a fun little entertainer that doesn't throw many curveballs and plays things with a mostly conservative, straightforward approach, building through stock characters and genre trope while the only tension that really mounts and matters is who will live and who will die. Unfortunately, characterization is rather flat, albeit adequate, resulting in a movie that leaves the audience not particularly caring about the particulars. It's a fun Saturday afternoon special sort of movie, one that chugs along at a decent pace and speed while satisfying basic entertainment requirements. A bit of gunplay, a touch of interpersonal drama, and a fair bit of sterile tension make the movie watchable yet ultimately forgettable, a solid little escapist piece that will keep the audience occupied but quick to move on to the next movie afterwards.

Here comes trouble.

An army deserter named Meredith (Julie Mond) goes on the run from the man (Fred Ward) hunting her down. She hops a bus on its way to El Paso, Texas for what she thinks will be an easy escape, but she'll soon learn that life in military prison might be preferable to what she's about to experience. An otherwise routine bus ride is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a motorcycle gang that finds amusement in peppering the bus with eggs and gunshots. The situations spirals out of control when one of the motorcyclists is killed after being struck by the bus. In the immediate aftermath, the bus driver is shot dead, Meredith is wounded, and the survivors manage to steer the bus to an old scrap yard where they hole up on one side with the bikers on the other. If they are to survive the night, they must come to terms with where they are, the reality of the situation in which they find themselves, and muster up the courage to use their unique skill sets to kill those who would kill them.

Imagine a movie that's Speed meets Duel and transitions to an adult, multi-participant version of Home Alone versus Sons of Anarchy and behold the core ideas behind Exit Speed. Director Scott Ziehl (Cruel Intentions 3) and Writer Michael Stokes (The Beacon) can't quite shake off all of the familiar pieces that define the movie. Never does Exit Speed truly feel all that novel, then, but it's just fun enough that it's worth a watch, anyway. It's a classic "jack of all trades, master of none" sort of movie that won't leave the audience breathless or maybe even fully engaged in the rather stale narrative, diverse yet dull characters, and largely routine action. Yet there's an underlying charm to its simplicity, and it goes about its business about as well as can be expected of a movie built on borrowed ideas, a low budget, and a few familiar faces in lead roles.

The film stars a couple of quasi-stars in Lea Thompson (Red Dawn, the Back to the Future trilogy) and Fred Ward (Tremors), the former as a runner/amateur survivalist thanks to her Girl Scout experience and the latter as a military policeman who only appears sporadically, unfortunately, rather than play a lead role in the film. His part is more classic "poster filler" than it is a necessary component. The full cast does, largely, hold its own even if the actors are forced to play very generic figures that fill a role and undergo only necessary and cursory development along the way. The eclectic bunch includes young lovers, a traveling salesman, an MIA soldier, a football coach with a gun, an absentee dad returning to the son he never knew, a native Spanish speaker with a knack for assembling gadgets and gizmos, and a video game/cosplay nerd who is also an expert archer. In short, it's a bunch of folks who serve a specific purpose to further the story and get as many people out of the situation alive as possible, almost as if fate -- or a scriptwriter -- brought them together to face off against a bunch of rowdy bikers out to get them because, well, who knows why. They started it, and the good folks on the EL Paso-bound bus are sure gonna finish it, even if it kills them.

Exit Speed Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Exit Speed pulls onto Blu-ray with a proficient 1080p transfer. The film-sourced transfer is a bit flat and dull on the whole, but it retains a light grain structure that noisily spikes only occasionally and generally in darker scenes. Details are never exacting or all that exciting. Image clarity is decent, and skin textures, clothing lines, and odds and ends around the scrap yard never appear intimately complex. Colors are likewise a bit muted; the opening hotel sequence is particularly drab, but things lighten and cheer up a bit later on before night falls on the bikers and their victims. Still, there's not much complexity or subtlety to the palette. Black levels waver between excess paleness and satisfying depth. Flesh tones aren't overly problematic. The image does feature a few bits of wear and tear, but nothing too distracting. The transfer isn't much of a looker, but there's enough good here to warrant a passing score.

Exit Speed Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Exit Speed features a good, but not great, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. It's fairly active and nicely defined, but it lacks the precision detail of the finest lossless audio presentations. Music enjoys healthy definition, wide front space, and a fair bit of surround support. The track features plenty of heavy and aggressive effects. Motorcycles zip through the stage with good power and ease of movement. Gunfire and a couple of explosions pack a nice bit of weight and authority. The track additionally delivers some quality ambient effects, particularly noticeable in quieter nighttime scenes. Dialogue is firm and clear with natural and consistent front-center placement.

Exit Speed Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Exit Speed contains a couple of previews and a couple of featurettes. All special features must be accessed from the pop-up menu. No top menu is included, though there is a "play movie" screen.

• Exit Speed Theatrical Trailer (480i, 2:17).
• Exit Speed TV Spot (1080i, 0:35).
• Featurettes Production Diary (480i, 35:07): Narrator/Producer Sally Helppie speaks atop a healthy helping of behind-the-scenes footage, setting the stage for various aspects of the production. Interview snippets are also included. This is an engaging piece that does a great job of telling the story of a smaller production.
• Featurettes Production Design (480i, 4:36): A quick look at building the film's primary set.
• Previews (480i/1080i/1080p): Assorted Phase 4 products.

Exit Speed Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Exit Speed is an amalgamation of several other, better entertainment options, but the film holds its own as a simple and mildly entertaining little tale of survivalism in Somewhere, Texas. It pits a bunch of ordinary people -- all of whom possess some skill critical to their survival -- against a band of angry motorcyclists who attack them without provocation. It's mindless but makes for passable, if not implausible entertainment that features a few familiar faces in both key and not-so-key roles. Phase 4's Blu-ray release of Exit Speed features fair video, good audio, and a couple of extras. Recommended at a very cheap price.