Last fall when I read 20th Century Fox was releasing a movie about a runaway train I was very dismissive. This material had been exhausted in many other films. There is the classic Runaway Train with John Voight, the comic Silver Streak with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, the dramatic Cassandra Crossing with Burt Lancaster, the mundane made for TV movies Runaway and Disaster On The Coastliner, and the ridiculous Atomic Train with Rob Lowe. Why would they bother with something that has already been done so many times.
In being dismissive I underestimated the ability of director Tony Scott to build and sustain dramatic tension. Granted the film is filled with cliches. From the stock characters of wise old-timer to brash rookie, the corporate exec who makes bad decisions, the family members waiting and watching, the movie is filled with time worn situations and sub-plots, but Scott manges to make them fresh and cram them into a tight 98 minute thriller. There is very little exposition. Within the first 10 minutes the runaway train is on it's way. The story cuts between the control room as they work to stop the train, the train itself and another train, miles away, directly in the path of danger.
Denzel Washington, director Scott's go to guy of late and Chris Pine are the two men on the second train. Washington is playing the same guy he played in Taking Of Pelham 123. In fact you could almost believe he retired from the MTA and went to work for the Pennsylvania freight company. The everyman stock characters with a streak of nobility is a role Washington could probably play in his sleep, which is why he is so effective. Chris Pine, fresh off his starring role as James T. Kirk, in Star Trek, plays another brash young man, willing to take risks, but who's actions sometimes have bad outcomes. We learn his marriage has broken up because of a quick temper and some things he did without thinking. Rosario Dawson is effective as yardmaster working to stop the train. The film also stars Kevin Dunn as the railroad VP who refuses to heed the advice of his employees and Ethan Suplee as the rail yard worker who accidentally sets the train in motion.
The cast is uniformly good, but the star of the film is the trains and the special effects and real train footage is blended seamlessly so that the film has a real sense of danger. The film cleverly interjects news footage to show the progress of the train to enhance the effect that it is a real incident unfolding. The film is inspired by true events that occurred in Ohio in 2001
Surprisingly, I was entertained and the last 30 minutes had me on the edge of my seat. Seems in Hollywood everything old can be new again.
At The Movie House rating *** stars
*note* - the poster above highlights just the two actors without any real indication of the films plot. In America when they sell a movie they sell the stars. But for overseas audiences the movie is the star. Check out these posters from Japan, Germany, France and the UK. In every poster the message is clear, this film is about a runaway train.
1 comment:
calls for a review of Runaway Train with Voight, which I think is a fantastic movie
Post a Comment