Inspired by the life of Don Aronow, John Travolta stars in the crime drama Speed Kills. The story follows Miami construction businessman Ben Aronoff as he joins the speedboat racing circuit and becomes a world champion, but before long his former mob contacts draw him into the drug trafficking trade. Travolta gives a rather phoned in performance and the script is poorly written; as it isn’t made clear how he become a speedboat champion and maverick designer, or what his part in the drug trafficking organization was. Still, there are some exciting and intense moments, and the sets and costumes do a good job at setting the right feel and tone for the times period. Speed Kills has an interesting story to tell, but it does a little too much skimming.

Move over Gotti and Battlefield Earth. THIS is Travolta's worst film; dreck of the highest order. With an appalling script and career-worst performances, the only speed you will experience in this movie is that of the fast-forward button as you hurry it to the end.

The story itself is undoubtedly interesting, however the film unfortunately falls short in terms of its execution. The writing of the movie leaves something to be desired, and the dialogue can be clunky with the pacing feeling uneven at times. Despite its flaws, however, the movie manages to convey the high stakes and intense thrills of Aronow's world. While Travolta's performance in is by no means bad, it's not one of his strongest performances. This is due in part to the limitations of the script and the uneven direction, which doesn't always give him the space to fully embody his character. All in all, _Speed Kills_ is flawed, but can be an intriguing movie for its depiction of a real-life story.

Decent story. Not sure why everyone is hating Travolta's performance; I thought he did a fair job given the rather bland story. Granted, there was a LOT of "backstory" that could have been added to make more sense out of this story; I still have no idea what his background in home construction in Jersey had to do with his connections to the mob, or how/why they caught up with him years later in Florida. Just so much that was left unexplained that caused the ending of this story to make absolutely no sense. I wouldn't say Travolta's performance was "phoned in"; I just think his character had little depth in the way this was written. Overall, it was a decent movie but no real depth to any of it. Not sorry I watched it but I wouldn't sit through it again.

Watchable, but not sure if I liked it or not. Read Dann Michalski's review here/below and it's a perfect summation of this movie... 6/10