`SPEED 2: CRUISE CONTROL' HELPS REV UP IDLE SUMMER.

Byline: Amy Dawes Daily News Film Critic

Ah, the summer movie season, when criticism is about as welcome as a wasp at a picnic. Perhaps that's because so few critics can adapt to the season; can put their quarrelsome, quibbling minds into cold storage, lower Ray-Bans over their withering gazes and relax into the simple pleasures of action, escapism and, yes, speed.

``Speed 2: Cruise Control'' fills the bill as well as any summer movie can be expected to - it's as perfect for the season as a mango margarita at poolside and an issue of Vanity Fair smeared with suntan oil.

It's set on a cruise ship, a place where deep thoughts evaporate instantly. It looks glamorous and spectacular, it never stops moving, and man, it's fun.

Motion-master Jan De Bont (the director of ``Speed'' and ``Twister'') gets things off to a tongue-in-cheek, undemanding start, sustains a reasonable level of excitement through the middle, and then delivers a third act that is one long, spectacular action sequence after another, culminating in not one, but three very memorable visual effects shots.

This is the kind of entertainment that plays all over the world, with a minimum of subtitles, and that's just what it's supposed to be.

The plot, as gauzy as a summer dress, has girl-next-door and crazy driver Annie (Sandra Bullock) setting out on a Caribbean cruise with hunky new beau Alex (Jason Patric). Suffering from too much excitement in her life (see ``Speed''), Annie apparently thought the brooding, emotionally inert Patric was just the antidote. But when she finds out he's an LAPD daredevil, she's ready to call it all off.

The boyfriend has other ideas. Once the cruise is under way, he keeps trying to get an engagement ring on her finger, only to have his proposal interrupted by explosions, passenger evacuations and other high-level crises.

There's a nut case on board - Willem Dafoe as a fatally ill, computer-savvy pscyho who's been betrayed by his company and wants to kill as many people as he can on his way out of this world. We've seen his kind too often, and with his skeletal features and pop-eyed leering, Dafoe's villain is the movie's most tiresome invention.

But after a series of on-board crises, the movie unveils its raison d'etre - the cruise ship is now in Sick Boy's control and headed straight for an oil tanker at full speed.

Spectacular suspense and visual payoff is promised - and delivered. In one scene, Patric dives under the boat to try to foul the propeller with a steel cable. Much like when Keanu Reeves dove under the bus in ``Speed,'' it's almost unbearable to watch.

The climax, when the cruise ship plows right into the port town of St. Martin (we're assuming you've seen this in the trailer or on TV), is fabulously well-sustained, paying off over and over, and there's great movie fun in watching the pastel buildings of the port town crumble like they're made of sugar candy.

The ship itself becomes a huge, cartoonish icon of mindless motion. With its white hull looming in front of the big blue sky, it looks great, too, and I can't think of a better symbol of what summer movies are all about.

No, ``Speed 2'' isn't as clever as the first one. No, Jason Patric (``After Dark My Sweet'') doesn't fully make the transition to the action genre - he seems present in body, but not in soul, and maybe that's to his credit.

But De Bont pulls off the splashy visual action and kinetic excitement he's known for; he does it on water, and he does it on time. That's more than we can say for another big filmmaker who set out to deliver the goods on water this summer - and that's all we expected, anyway.

The facts

The film: ``Speed 2: Cruise Control'' (PG-13; intense action).

The stars: Sandra Bullock, Jason Patric, Willem Dafoe.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Jan De Bont. Screenplay by Randall McCormick and Jeff Nathanson, based on a story by McCormick and De Bont. Produced by De Bont, Steve Perry and Michael Peyser. Released by 20th Century Fox.

Running time: Two hours, five minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Three stars

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Annie (Sandra Bullock) and Alex (Jason Patric) in a romantic moment during ``Speed 2.''