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Atomic Train

Atomic Train

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $13.48
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not bad, but not good, either
Review: Atomic train is one of those "In between" TV films. It is not bad, but it is by no means good. The movie is about a runaway train heading towards Denver with a nuclear bomb inside one of its cars. The engineers an't stop it, so one man, a train wreck investagator, John Seger (Rob Lowe) goest out to try and get the situation under control.

Now, I just saw this on Sci-Fi a few days ago. The action scenes were well done, but some of the acting could have been much better. Also, there are a few holes in the plot that were extreamly noticeable, and during the course of the film there are many chances to stop the train that are overlooked. (i.e, when a crew member on the train is leaning against the hand break of one of the frieght cars and says "How the hell do we stop this thing"). But other than that, this was a good movie. If you like trains, you should see it at least once.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not bad, but not good, either
Review: Atomic train is one of those "In between" TV films. It is not bad, but it is by no means good. The movie is about a runaway train heading towards Denver with a nuclear bomb inside one of its cars. The engineers an't stop it, so one man, a train wreck investagator, John Seger (Rob Lowe) goest out to try and get the situation under control.

Now, I just saw this on Sci-Fi a few days ago. The action scenes were well done, but some of the acting could have been much better. Also, there are a few holes in the plot that were extreamly noticeable, and during the course of the film there are many chances to stop the train that are overlooked. (i.e, when a crew member on the train is leaning against the hand break of one of the frieght cars and says "How the hell do we stop this thing"). But other than that, this was a good movie. If you like trains, you should see it at least once.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE BEST MOVIE EVER!
Review: Best movie of all time. It has the best fx and the plot is great. A great movie that i recomend

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Make Up Your Minds, People
Review: I am watching this movie on Sci-Fi as I write this. Not a bad movie, HOWEVER, atomic energy is not nuclear energy. The movie is called "Atomic Train" but the filmmakers can't decide if its an atomic bomb or a nuclear bomb. They're not the same. Atomic came before nuclear. And my mother hates Mena Suvari because she is a blonde. (I think she's cute.) And that concludes our lesson for the day.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The movie rocks!
Review: I have watched the movie about 6 times already, and it never gets boring. The effects were done very well, and accurately portrays the mayhem and chaos cause by this threat as the train hurls toward Denver and finally... Well, you're just gonna have to watch it yourself. It also shows the multi-dimensional view of human bahaviour, and how everyone would try and work together and save themselves from the worse. Some of the computer graphics were satisfactory and could have been better. But the most dramatic of all was when Rob Lowe jumped onto the train and became stranded with the crew members onboard. So heroic. This is one of those movies where it is not based on the effects or what stars are in the movie, but about human emotion, and the possibility of what will happen when the "unexpected" happens. Watch the first part of the movie and you'll see what I mean. Everyone is like been to hell and back, although some of them didn't make it, most survived. Overall, I believe this is a good choice for those moments where you just want to sit down with a bag of popcorn and watch a movie jammed with action. This movie's got it all. I believe NBC showed the movie on national TV earlier in 1999, but can't remember what day. You may have watched it. Anyways, proceed to your nearest video store and rent a copy today. A big thumbs up!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Why God oh why! ! ! ! !
Review: I saw this movie one night when there was nothing else to watch on television and may i say before i start that it was down right crudd (not just crudd like really, really crudd i mean the worst film i ever saw and i've seen "Gray Owl")
If you ever watch this film the odds are you will die of boredom.
The director who will remain nameless because no one knows who the hell he is anyway obviously had a lot of money a few acotrs (by actors i mean retard coffee waitors/waitresses who dream of one day making it big in Hollywood, but have all the acting potential of a peanut. Oh don't get me wrong peanuts whould do a better job than this cast did)
Anyway besides the stupid script and all together woful (made up word) acting and plot i think this VHS has potential as a drink coaster or possibly a device which you attack when you get angry.
The action scenes in the film are plausable but anyone can do good action scenes these days with money and special effects, which director had a lot of for some reason. i can't help but thinking the director showed the producers another script possibly a stolen one now to be "Lord of the rings" because unless he had a script like that i wouldn't give him enough money to buy 1 let alone a whole cast of his peanut actors.
Anyway the movie is down right awfull and is along side the great movies of the last generation such as "Batman and Robin" or "O brother where art thou" or possibly "Blazing saddles" (no offence Mel)
See this movie and suffer an eternal fortune of trying to forget it. I must end by saying the worst part of this film is the writers terrible, terrible attempt to try to make a hero out of a local Park Ranger.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Atomic Train was a surprise blast.
Review: I took a chance on buying the movie Atomic Train. I have never seen it before or knew anyone that has. I based my decision on the title and the reviews I read on Amazon. Knowing that it was a made for TV flick my expectations was low. I have watched the movie twice now and I am glad I bought it. The basic story is a stowaway nuclear bomb on a runaway train. Will the train crash and set off the bomb? I will not give much away but to say there are a few surprises. Being a TV movie you have your soap opera elements but not as bad as I had expected. The special effects are good and the acting decent. There is a short making of the movie on the DVD. If you like trains and action you probably won't be disappointed.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: What can you say....
Review: Normally, in these type of movies, we get a simple plot where the hero defuses the bomb and the villain is either killed or arrested. Not here, which is the only good thing about it.

The bad stuff is just everywhere. You keep asking yourself: 'why doesn't he do this or that and save us some time?' None of the main characters makes sense.

The boy climbing down a ladder to help his dad finds himself stuck. The father, who is seriously injured, now has to pull his son back up the ladder using a rope. And what does he get in return? A ladder in his face! And so much for his dad, the guy's is goner. Killed by his own son. Nice thing to work with, plotwise? No way, the boy doesn't even care!

Mena Suvari's boyfriend is nothing more than a pain in the ass. He succeeds in getting injured even before anything happens! Then he just lays around feeling sorry for himself. Well done! The would-be-hero-dude (Rob Lowe) who pulls out of the rescue operation and leaves all the work to his college who (of course, he was black and previously unintroduced) dies. It's like saying: 'I'm a firefighter, but I have wife and kids, so I'd better leave now!'

I don't feel like writing anymore about this, as it feels like a waste of time. A strange thing is that I enjoyed watching it, merely to laugh at the mistakes and plot holes. So it might have Ed Wood potential!

O yeah: what ever happened to the black guy leading the firetruck parade?


Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Cheesy but watchable if there is nothing else on TV
Review: Okay so this film was pretty cheesy but let's be honest there have been worse that have been screened and have even won Oscars, so lets not be judgemental okay?

Rob Lowe does a pretty passable job as the jaded Train Crash expert John Seager trying to hold his family together, rebellious teenage daughter Grace, shy and gentle step-son Chance plus a sassy young wife with a chip-on-his-shoulder Cop for an ex-husband.

The plot is fairly simple and perhaps a little long winded. Nuclear Bomb ends up on a train conveniently sitting next to some highly inflammable chemicals; train has a REALLY bad leaky break problem. Enter Rob Lowe, a bunch of army guys, a gung-ho General who wants to blow the train off the mountain (this actor plays General Hammond in Stargate by the way!) a rather goofy good hearted President of the USA and an assortment of heroes, heroines, goodies and baddies all putting in their 10 cents worth..

The train ends up behind derailed and the bomb explodes, and the disaster movie becomes a disaster movie twice over.

The special effects are not bad, the acting ditto, a bit hammy but like I've said, there's worse out there in cellular city. The movie does however lack any real suspense, and of course you have the cheesy family reunions , rescues, tears and tantrums, plus the obligatory resentful step-daughter embracing her step-mother near the end of the film.

You also get some terribly embarrassing speeches from the President but hey why on earth not? You've got everything else in this kitchen sink of a film, why not some heart-felt speeches to give it a little patriotic zip?

All in all though, its not a bad little film to wile away a really boring evening, I've seen worse and at least with this film, I won't loose my way in the plot, so I can nip out and make a cup of tea and still know where I am when I get back!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Might be OK movie if you're not into trains
Review: See other reviews for plot info, I won't repeat it. Apparently the makers of this movie didn't know anything about geography or railroads.

300 Miles west of Denver is the other side of the mountains. The train would have to go uphill 150 miles or so, before it could even begin to coast down.

The setting is supposedly modern, yet the train contained cars that have not been in service since the 80s, including a caboose!? The box car containing the "bomb" was modified with a roof walk and side bars so the actors could climb on it.

One of the major malfunctions of the train was a broken air line so the train couldn't stop. In reality when the line breaks and looses the air, the brakes come on automatically.

The throttle of the locomotive got stuck on. No problem, all the engineer had to do was take his foot off the "dead man" pedal, and the train would stop (In the "Silver Streak" the bad guy used a tool box to hold it down.) After that, even though the engineer had no control of the train, he remained in the engineer's seat instead of trying to help out.

The hero tried to short out the "booster" in order to slow it down, but earlier the engineer had said the dynamics wouldn't stop it. Even if this would have worked, it would have been much easier just to disconnect the wires (called MU cables) that hook the two locomotives together.

And the worst thing of all. Each car has its own manual brake. Can you imagine five trainmen and a man who investigates train wrecks not knowing that. Several shots that show the people trying to stop the train also show the brake wheel in clear view. "Hey stupid, turn the wheel behind you!"

These things and others (like people in panic trying to steal an auto in one scene, yet 10 seconds later the owners leave the vehicle to help someone but no one steals it?) ruin any plot credibility of the rest of the show.

As my spouse said, "If that movie is so bad why are you watching it?" It was a good question and as such I turned it off and don't know or care how it ended.


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