The Cassandra Crossing

Rating:
Summary: CASSANDRA CROSSING ROCKS!
Review: A thoroughly suspenseful and above all entertaining movie! This is one of my all time favourite disaster epics and features an impressive host of stars, including Sophia Loren in the leading role, and Burt Lancaster who gives a particularly good performance as Colonel Mackenzie. This movie moves along with tremendous speed, panache and features sharp plotting and editing. The train footage and scenery is a joy to look at too! Although this was made in 1976, it still thrills me to this day. This disaster epic may not have a massive array of effects like the recent VOLCANO and ARMAGEDDON, but it still delivers the goods. One might say the climax could have inspired a similar one in UNDER SIEGE 2, but CASSANDRA CROSSING is much better! Don't miss this one.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent movie but could have been a better DVD package
Review: I had anticipated the DVD version of this classic 1976 disaster movie for ages, and finally got to see it while my wife wasn't watching reruns of FRIENDS! The movie is superb. A trainload of passengers is not only heading for a condemned bridge over a deep and deadly abyss, it has plague on board and no country along the route will let anyone off! Sounds familiar? This might have inspired later movies like EXECUTIVE DECISION, OUTBREAK and even the TV mini-series PANDORA'S CLOCK(about a disease on a plane!) and UNDER SIEGE 2. But CASSANDRA CROSSING even today is still a suspenseful and hugely enjoyable all-star disaster flick. Sophia Loren, in the leading role, helping a neurosurgeon played by Richard Harris prevent the disease from spreading throughout the Geneva to Stockholm express, looks gorgeous(I've been a long time fan of her and her movies), and Burt Lancaster is particularly good as the US Army Intelligence colonel who has to decide whether or not to sacrifice the train passengers to prevent a plague epidemic striking Europe. The DVD itself: picture quality was better than my old VHS version, the sound could have been better and there were no additional features except a chapter selection. But, like the other reviewers have quite correctly stated, it beats the VHS version any day, and this movie rocks!

Rating:
Summary: 70's Disaster Films at their BEST WORST!
Review: I mean, what could be better than the beauty of Sophia Loren and Ava Gardner, the "heroics" of Richard Harris, the "noble" sacrifice of Lee Strasberg, and a glimpse of actor-in-development Martin Scheen? Hey, the flick even has O J, as an undercover cop/priest! Burt Lancaster is along as a sinister government official. Featuring a genre score from composer Jerry Goldsmith, this film is enjoyable escapist fare. Even if the plot has about as many holes as the Titanic eventually had, the film accomplishes what the filmmakers intended: provide the movie-viewing with an afternoon's worth of fun!

Rating:
Summary: 70's Disaster Films at their BEST WORST!
Review: I mean, what could be better than the beauty of Sophia Loren and Ava Gardner, the "heroics" of Richard Harris, the "noble" sacrifice of Lee Strasberg, and a glimpse of actor-in-development Martin Scheen? Hey, the flick even has O J, as an undercover cop/priest! Burt Lancaster is along as a sinister government official. Featuring a genre score from composer Jerry Goldsmith, this film is enjoyable escapist fare. Even if the plot has about as many holes as the Titanic eventually had, the film accomplishes what the filmmakers intended: provide the movie-viewing with an afternoon's worth of fun!

Rating:
Summary: Why did they quit offering the widescreen?
Review: I recently picked up a used widescreen version of this movie from Artisan, and was quite pleasantly surprised at the quality of the transfer. Outside of not being anamorphic, the picture was quite good!

Why they quit offering the widescreen version, but still offer the butchered pan & scan is beyond me...but if you get the opportunity, get the widescreen version.

The release was definitely bare-bones....no extras....period.

It is well worth owning, however. This is one of the best of the circa-70's disaster movies, with only O.J. Simpson's acting (or inability to act) as a negative. The ending is stunning...I won't give it away, but it isn't what the viewer is most likely expecting.

If you can buy this one used....on widescreen....do so. Even if it's just to see Sophia Loren!

Rating:
Summary: Cassandra Crossing
Review: I was so glad this title finally made it on DVD. To my dissapointment the disc will not play on my players (Panasonic and Sony). I ordered for a replacement copy from Amazon but the replacement copy did not play either. The players went into a reading mode and stayed that way but never played at all. I was just wondering if anyone out there had the same experience with this title. I was at Tower Records this weekend and offered that I will buy the movie if I can open the shrinkwrap and play the disc into their DVD player just to see if the movie is playing. Too bad the store did not have a DVD player but the employee told me that he already had two individuals returned the same title for the same reason I had. It's a shame a beautiful movie like Cassandra Crossing can not be viewed on DVD. I suspected the transfer of the movie into DVD had glitch on it. Two returns from me and two individuals at Tower Records that I know of for the same technical reason can not be coincidental.

Rating:
Summary: "I Knew I should have flown."
Review: THE CASSANDRA CROSSING is my favorite disaster film, probably because I'm a sucker for any movie set on a train. While it isn't any more profound than contemporaries like THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE or THE TOWERING INFERNO, it is made with so much panache the silly proceedings are almost compelling. The "disaster" this time is a lethal pathogen developed secretly by the United States. It's carried by an unsuspecting Swedish terrorist on board a high speed European train carrying the usual assortment of stereotyped characters.

Except, not exactly. For instead of the plasticene lovers usually inflicted on us by Hollywood, we're treated to bitchy exchanges between twice divorced Famous Doctor Richard Harris and Swinging Author Sophia Loren, while aging flower children have uninhibited sex in the uninhabited compartment next door. The saintly Jewish character (what mode of transport is complete without one?) overplayed by Lee Strasberg, this time is a Nazi holocaust survivor, terrified at the thought of going "back there." (The train is being diverted to Poland.) And let's not forget the heroin smuggler/gigolo (Martin Sheen), his lover Nicole, wife of an arms manufacturer (Ava Gardner), the Evil Colonel (Burt Lancaster), the Idealistic Scientist (Ingrid Thulin) and yes, of course, the Interpol-Agent-Masquerading-as-a-Priest, O.J. Simpson, who at least is given the chance to exercise his specialty by running up and down the corridors a couple of times.

The writing throughout suggests that no one was taking things too seriously. When Loren and Harris meet for the first time, for example, Loren appraises Harris and says "You've gained a few pounds Jonathan. Must be all that fat of the land you're living on." Or, when Harris explains to Gardner about how he's developed a way to rejuvenate the brain cells of retarded children, she turns to Sheen and says "Oh, you see, darling, there's hope for you yet." Gardner's performance is pure Camp, and she has my favorite line. After she gives a soldier a gun taken from him by an enraged Sheen, she says. "Did you know my Hugo makes these? He'll be delighted you're using them."

Most 70s disaster films feel half-hearted, worn out, over-produced, over-weight and are about as exciting as an afternoon nap. They were often expensive, but usually looked cheap. THE CASSANDRA CROSSING is as sharply edited as the Bond films. Cinematographer Ennio Guarnieri gives the film the soft-edged, glossy surfaces of a spread from VOGUE, nicely rendered on the DVD. Jerry Goldsmith, who was at the height of his creative powers when this film was made, contributes a first-rate score, one moment lush, then astringent. George Pan Cosmatos, who in addition to this film, directed RAMBO and TOMBSTONE, is a first-rate action stylist. He's said in interviews that he attributes his success to a combination of American know-how and European sophistication. That certainly sums up the appeal of THE CASSANDRA CROSSING.

Rating:
Summary: Cassandra Crossing finally in widescreen
Review: This is the long-awaited widescreen presentation of this fairly interesting disaster flick from the 70's. It's an entertaining thrill ride from start to finish with a terrific cast, and now we can see the glorious European scenery in all it's widescreen splendor. The only caviat here is that the film elements used for the transfer are still not quite up to snuff, a little gritty in spots, but it's still way better than any VHS version up until now.

Rating:
Summary: Cassandra Crossing finally in widescreen
Review: This is the long-awaited widescreen presentation of this fairly interesting disaster flick from the 70's. It's an entertaining thrill ride from start to finish with a terrific cast, and now we can see the glorious European scenery in all it's widescreen splendor. The only caviat here is that the film elements used for the transfer are still not quite up to snuff, a little gritty in spots, but it's still way better than any VHS version up until now.

Rating:
Summary: Thrillers don't get any better than this!!
Review: Thoroughly entertaining thriller about a trans continental train from Geneva to Stockholm that is carrying a convict infected with plague. Excellent music score by Jerry Goldsmith and splendid European scenery. I am glad to see it released on DVD although the DVD could have been better. No extras, no subtitles, and as one of the other reviewer put it -- film transfer to DVD could have been better but it is a lot better than any available VHS.