Runaway Train (1985)

Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The cinematography is good, the action is fantastic, and the music is excellent but characters and their actions are the weakest part of the movie. Nearly every choice the people make seem like the worst on and motivations seem conflicting and confusing. Manny and his partner are mostly unlikeable and basically insufferable. Manny's choice at the end and the death of the warden are frustrating and feels like an undeserved victory for him.

Allow me to step out my time machine in the year 2016 and express my love for a film that I first saw first run in January 1986. From the opening scene at the supermax prison located in rugged northwestern Alaska to the escape and subsequent epic train ride this film was chocked full of imagery and strong characters especially Voight and Roberts. These two gave the performance of a lifetime and were robbed at awards programs with only a nomination for Roberts. Look for a young Danny Trejo in the boxing ring with Roberts in his first ever movie scene at the beginning of the film. Without disclosing the plot the most interesting aspect is how such a cast of unbelievably dangerous characters could evoke so much understanding and empathy that even in the worst of the worst there is dignity and respect worthy of any of us. One other aspect that added a surreal moment to an already surreal movie. At the end of the film as the dispatch office as given up hope on stopping the train and saving the occupants the head controller Frank Barstow who designed the computer system that now has failed to save them laments how could this have happened with all this technology and expertise and in the background there is a television with the a news story about the space shuttle. This film was released the same month as the Challenger Disaster and yours truly was watching this first run only days after the disaster. It was a coincidence but wow talk about powerful. I walked out of the theater completely affected for days and now thirty years later I'm still talking about it.

Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, "Runaway Train" is one If the most under rated movies of the 80's.Plot In A Paragraph: Oscar "Manny" Manheim is a "lifer" and hero to the convicts of Stonehaven Maximum Security Prison. After two previous escape attempts the doors to Manny's cell have been welded shut for three years. A court order makes the sadistic Warden Ranken, release him back into the general prison population. Manny immediately breaks out a third time with Buck McGeehy, (Eric Roberts) another convict (convicted of statutory rape) Buck idolizes Manny, but Manny does not care for the company. The two hop on board a train consisting of four locomotives at a remote Alaskan rail yard. Just as the train is set in motion, the elderly engineer suffers a heart attack. Consequently, in trying to stop the train and get off he accidentally makes it impossible to stop the train. Neither of the two convicts is aware of their situation as the Warden sets off in pursuit. Both Jon Voight and Eric Roberts were Oscar nominated for this movie, and were both unlucky not to win, as both were superb. See Roberts when he realises his idol is not who he thought he was, and Voight is fantastic throughoutGolam Globus didn't have many Oscar nominated movies, so this should be remembered more than it is.

The next time I criticise an action movie for being brainless, only to be met by the response of "well, it is an action movie!", I'll refer them to Runaway Train, a breathless, thoroughly exciting action movie that manages to portray two fully three-dimensional characters amidst underlying sociological messages about imprisonment and reform. Developed from an un-filmed Akira Kurosawa script by Djordje Milicevic, Paul Zindel, and former hardened inmate Eddie Bunker, Runaway Train proves that action movies can do a hell of a lot more than blow s**t up and offer amusing one-liners.Notorious convict Manny (Jon Voight) is released from three years in confinement by hateful warden Ranken (John P. Ryan) not just because of media pressure, but in the hope that he will try and escape so Barstow may kill him. After he is attacked and wounded, Manny makes the quick decision to escape his Alaskan confines, and does so with the help of the young and rather dumb Buck (Eric Roberts). They board a train, but unbeknown to them the engineer on board has died from a heart attack and the train is heading at high speed towards various obstacles. Ground-staff are alerted to the situation and quickly set about clearing the tracks, but Ranken has soon joined them with revenge in mind.Many Hollywood movies offer moments of spectacular visual effects and sound design that should be applauded, but normally these scenes don't tend to generate any excitement in me. Runaway Train offers similar scenes, but there's two key aspects that make the film work so well. The first is emotional investment. As despicable as these characters often are, Manny and Buck are real, helped considerably by the career-best performances of Voight and Roberts. The former, in an empowering speech that may just be the best work he's ever done, informs Buck of the futility of their situation. They may just rule the world if they could hold down a job, but they can't, they're criminals, and cannot escape their societal role.The appearance of Rebecca De Mornay's character Sara, a young engineer still aboard and who is unable to stop the train, highlights this. Manny and Buck squabble and fight for the first time in front of her, showing that when put into a situation where the laws of society come into play, they reject it and turn into animals. These exchanges occur between some nail-biting scenes, which brings me onto the next aspect that makes the film work so well - real action. There's no wide-shots of gigantic explosions, just two battered men clawing and slipping their way along the snow-drenched train. In one scene, after a daring attempt to jump carriages, Manny's wind and cold-battered face craws towards the camera, ragged bandages hang off his bloodied hand, and his crooked, brown teeth are bared. The camera is so intrusive that you really feel every move he makes, to the point where I felt exhausted.Though it does occasionally slip in prison movie cliché, this is perhaps one of the most underrated films ever made. It was recognised at the Oscars with nominations for Voight, Roberts and for Best Editing, but it doesn't seem to have left the legacy it certainly deserves. I wouldn't exactly call the film obscure, but your average film-goer probably won't have heard of it, especially when compared to, say, Die Hard (1988). This is riveting stuff, tightly directed by Russian Andrei Konchalovsky (who went on to make the crappy Tango & Cash (1989)), and the film leaves you with an beautiful and slightly eerie final image that could say more than words could have.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com