Rating: 
Summary: LIBERTY TRAIN
Review: RUNAWAY TRAIN is one of the rare good movies produced by the Laurel & Hardy of Hollywood production : Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. An original story of japanese director Akira Kurosawa filmed by Andrei Kontchalovsky, RUNAWAY TRAIN, 14 years after its theatrical release, is still steaming.With a breath-taking rythm, Jon Voight, Eric Roberts and a Rebecca DeMornay in her prime brunette youth, the Alaskan landscapes that Kontchalovsky transforms in a Siberian goulag, this movie is one of the more brilliant cat and mouse films of the last decades. Terribly pessimistic movie also since Jon Voight and Eric Roberts will only taste an illusion of liberty. An almighty God, the informatician that controls the railtracks, is leading the runaway train in any direction he wants. The shadow of Akira Kurosawa can be recognized behind this idea of men believing to be free while the Fate has already marked the end of the journey. The last scene of RUNAWAY TRAIN is a lyrical masterpiece worthy to be compared to the most visionary works of german director Werner Herzog or to the silent films of King Vidor. A haunting vision. Superb audio and video transfers. Attractive menu and a theatrical trailer. A frozen DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: Four locomotives in tandem at 90 miles per
Review: Some improbable plot moments cannot detract from a terrific movie made great by the two central characters - Jon Voight and four locomotive engines in tandem on the run and disappearing into an endless void of white non-existence. Also one of the great monologues about existential life and advice to the young convict by old timer Manny(Voight)- to get a job cleaning toilets and doing it well for the man is better than all the dreams about Copacabana, Las Vegas and making it BIG. In my reckoning, a masterpiece out of that blighted decade of greed, Reagan, Thatcher and all the rest of those sick poseurs. Don't miss it, then rerun it every now and then and ponder.
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking action film
Review: Sure, you wouldn't expect it from a film like this, but it gives you a thing or two to think about. Voight, as always, is excellent as a hardened lifer who never deludes himself as to exactly how bad people can be (himself, the warden, and the rest of us), with a surprisingly good turn by both Roberts and DeMornay. Philosophical insights pop up at the oddest moments, but it never sounds trite or artificial. Good, solid film.
Rating:
Summary: In The Belly Of The Beast
Review: Suspenseful, thought-provoking action film. Stellar performances delivered by one and all (even the minor players were up for this one). The driving force of the movie is the personal animosity between hard-core convict Oscar "Manny" Manheim (Jon Voigt) and the prison warden Ranken (John P. Ryan).
After spending three years welded in his windowless cell, mulitple murderer "Manny" Manheim is returned to the general population on a "human rights" appeal by his lawyers. The rancor between Ranken and Manheim is the focus of the first part of the movie with Ranken attempting to kill Manny, and threatening to send Manny out of the prison "in plastic".
The movie finally gets moving when Manny, aided and unwelcomely accompanied by Buck (Eric Roberts) escapes through the prison sewer. After trudging through an Alaskan blizzard, Manny and Buck hop on a train of four deisel engines. As the train is leaving the station the engineer suffers a massive heart attack and accidentally whacks the throttle wide open before falling off the train, and the fun begins!
Ranken is flying high as his obsession with Manny leads him over the edge and into a final confrontation with his nemesis. The warden ironically becomes a prisoner of his own obsession.
The train itself is transformed into some unstoppable, mythic beast bent on destroying everything in its path, and in its belly.
Rebecca DeMornay (who proves she can actually act!) has a decidedly unglamourous role as a railyard worker (Sara) trapped on the train with Manny and Buck after falling asleep in one of the engines.
Buck gets a lesson in life and a lesson in living from Manny.
Manny is forced by Sara to look inside himself and decides he doesn't like what he sees. After being "at war with the world and everyone in it" he finally makes peace with himself and realizes there is only one way he can ever really be free; only one way he can ever be the master of his own fate.
The three runaway trains finally converge to a shared doom at the climax of the movie.
Rating:
Summary: A Superior Action Drama
Review: This 1985 classic ranks with The Terminator and The Road Warrior as one of the greatest action films of the 1980's. However, the script and the acting in this film is a notch higher, I think. This one has an unforgettable, powerful -albeit a little pretentious- ending. But remember, all great films are a little pretentious, or they wouldn't be "movies," would they?
Rating:
Summary: Gripping & Powerful Tale
Review: This is a powerful story with Jon Voigt at his best. I have watched this movie a total of five times and each time it gives me some new insight that I did not see before. Really is more like a play than a movie. Yet the actions sequences and cinimatography are fantastic. But the nitty-gritty is in the acting.. SUPERB!!
Rating:
Summary: Believable characters, moving drama
Review: This is one of the few movies that really moved me, I could feel the anger and despair some of the main characters felt. I absolutely *loved* the end, which is totally different than the usual Hollywood happy-endings.
Rating:
Summary: Voight is fantastic!
Review: This Kurusawa tale is carried by Jon Voight, who does a brilliant job as the violent, snarling Mannie, which is 180 degrees from his bright-eyed and vulnerable roles of the 1970's (ie., Midnight Cowboy, Deliverance.) The movie not only keeps you on the edge of your seat as to whether the runaway train will crash, but it also examines the collisons we have in choosing right from wrong, good from bad, and who we will be and how we will be remembered. Mannie is not an animal, but instead makes us look at what's involved to being a human. I loved this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: This movie defines the harshness of humanity it really lays it on the line for you. Also some of the lines are great Like---"You do what have to do I'll do what I have to do and whatever happens happens.
Rating:
Summary: since age 6
Review: this movie was a new release video rental when i was six. my father rented it and we watched it together. since then its still my all time fav movie. as i grew up and watched it over and over, i've noticed more and more about it. at first i just liked watching the train, then became more involved with the characters.the bad guys (manney-a killer and buck- a rapist)escape from prison and stowaway on four frieght locomotives. the train departs the yard and the engineer dies of a heart attack. the only other person on board is a female worker that dosen't kow much adout driving trains. so now the bad guys and this innocent girl must combine thier skills to stop the train that risks hitting other tains, weak bridges, sharp curves, chemical plants, and their own lives (while the athorities are hunting the convicts,and rail control must figue out what to do)
shot on location on the alaska railroad, the photography of four locos tearing apart the beautiful wintery scenery is worth watching in its own,but its part action-thriller,part psychological drama,part art film,part comedy, and even shaksperian.it has a brilliant sreenplay, thats often powerful,emotional, and comedic, and the whole film itself is very dark. the train itself is a great main character, all black, frosted with snow, smashed up, speeding at 90 mph thru a blizzard, and the three passengers must trek from the last to the lead engine shutting the engine down as the go on (with -30 degrees outside,at 90 mph, and snow blowing in thier faces)it becomes very tense. stunts include charaters dragging underneath,hanging on the sides, crawling on the top of the train, as well as a collision, and a helicopter transfering a police officer onto the speeding train (that can be disatarus if not done right). any moment in between action sequences the characters question their paths in life,talk about where they went wrong,and will they get it right given a second chance. the train itself is symbolic to thier lives, and more important- our lives! we are all runaway trains, on our own tracks, following our own destinys, and trying to conrol it, we will derail, we will slow down,other people could stop you, but we all have our destinations, whether or not you get there safley is up to your actions, and the paths you take in life.sometimes we make it, sometimes we don't!
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