Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky's second American film may well be the only existential adventure flick in Hollywood history. Two prisoners, Manny (Jon Voight) and Buck (Eric Roberts), escape from a desolate Alaskan maximum-security facility. They hop aboard a speeding train, making a clean escape. But the engineer has suffered a heart attack, and the train goes out of control. To prevent a disastrous head-on collision, the railroad heads decide to derail the runaway train, killing its
occupants to save the lives of hundreds of others. Once Manny catches on to what's happening, he tries to jump off the train, only to be talked out of such a foolhardy act by railroad employee Sara (Rebecca DeMornay). As doom approaches, Manny apparently goes mad, viciously preventing any attempts to stop the train or rescue its passengers: if he's to die, and if the others are to be saved, it will be on his terms, or no terms. Runaway Train was slated as a project for Akira Kurosawa in 1970, but for various creative and scheduling reasons, it remained on the back burner for 15 years. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Wrenchingly intense and brutally powerful, Andrei Konchalovsky's film rates as a most exciting action epic and is fundamentally serious enough to work strongly on numerous levels.
The nihilism and the vicious intensity of Mr. Voight's performance here are entirely different from anything else he has done on screen; it's a shame those qualities emerge in such a vigorous but disjointed film.
Somehow one leaves aside the blatant implausibilities, the coincidences, even Eric Roberts, and takes great pleasure in a breakneck ride to the end of the line.
Dominated by a massive performance from Voight, this is a cracking action movie that stays on track to the end of the line, en route turning its monstrous protagonist into a brutal anti-hero.
What an entertaining ride. The dialogue is laughable at times, but what works is the raw storytelling. Loaded with "What's that actor's name?" type actors, it works because the actors want it to work. The plot isn't anything deep other than two convicts on the run on a train without brakes. That's all we
really need. Yet, only a few minutes into the opening credits, it drops an unexpected bit of information by revealing that it is based on a screenplay by legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. Wha?Perhaps, it explains why this isn't your typical action film, but a great action film. You really get the feeling the train is out of control (as much as it could be on rails) with great camerawork and stunts. It doesn't rely on 100 camera edits a minute, or one explosion after the other or repetitive gunfights with corny one-liners that other action films of the 80's relied on so heavily. Jon Voight is awesome. Keep an eye out for Mr. Blue from Reservoir Dogs.
April 27, 2008
El Hombre Invisible
Super Reviewer
Jon Voight is a dangerous convict who escapes from an Alaskan prison and hijacks a train. It's quite suspenseful and tragic.
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