Rating: 
Summary: Sit on the edge of your seat movie!
Review: Narrow Margin starring Gene Hackman and Anne Archer is a wonderful action and adventure movie and has some nail biting suspense aboard a train! This is definitely a movie I could watch again several times and not get bored with it!
Rating: 
Summary: An atmospheric thriller quickie
Review: Peter Hyams' remake of Richard Fleisher's 1952 The Narrow Margin focuses more on atmosphere and scenery than it does film noir. It does make for a cool, if a bit too short, movie.
Gene Hackman is the loudmouth Deputy DA desperate to get a big daddy mob boss behind bars. And when a shy book editor witnesses a mob assassination he treks out to Middleofnowhere, Canada to drag her into court to testify. Problem's arise when the bad guys show up in the wilderness and blow the crap out of her cabin.
A brilliant, rustic car/chopper chase down the sheer slopes of a mountain forest follows. It's a great scene with some cool shots and sharp editing. Once they reach the bottom of the mountain they find a train station and board the train for a private cabin. The bad guys follow, only they still don't know what their witness looks like.
Many scenes of hiding and seeking make up the rest of the movie. It doesn't sound like much but Peter Hyams' widescreen photography is used to the max to promote a sense of claustrophobia and even the quieter scenes are dominated by the sound of the train charging through the dark Canadian wilderness. One particular scene at Monashee Station really does take advantage of the 'middle of nowhere' feeling.
Bruce Broughton's score is kind of okay, but nothing as loud and exciting as the score he originally created. Peter Hyams disagreed (as he often does with his composers) and chopped up Broughton's work in post-production. Thus, the music in the movie is more of an underscore with much of the more action-based cues missing.
I wish it did last longer and with more scenes on the train (coz trains are cool) but, for what it is, Narrow Margin is a tightly wrought thriller with Gene Hackman on top form as always and having fun playing the older guy in the suit who can still get into fights and car chases as if it were his everyday job.
Filmed in Panavision the DVD is in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with a Dolby 2.0 soundtrack. Though 5.1 would have been better there is still some surround use. The R2 DVD by Universal also has better cover art than the R1.
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Summary: NARROW MARGIN is a Keeper! Check it out!
Review: Riveting action chase of Ford Bronco thru forrest. How do you hide on a train? Watch and see. A few plot twists, enough to keep you interested. Fine ending. Liked it well enough to buy it. Have seen it three times to date.
Rating:
Summary: ''You're tall''
Review: This classic piece of dialogue and what occurs straight after it mark one of the high points of this immensely satisfying thriller.Expert performances from Gene Hackman and Anne Archer as the pair in peril and a generally tense feel to the proceedings:both the heroes and the villains are racing to avoid each other,which they are doing at a fast pace,yet at the same time ,the train is also racing along,and I feel this is a clever and intriguing premise to work along.In fact,after 11 years,it still has the impressive thrill-factor required for a film of it's kind.Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: One of Hackman's Best Movies
Review: This DVD has plenty of extras. The picture and sound on this DVD make the movie look like it was just made recently. Gene Hackman has some really good one liners in this movie. Plenty of suspense, comedy, and action.
Rating:
Summary: A DEFINITE NAIL BITER...
Review: This is a terrific thriller with excellent performances by Gene Hackman, Anne Archer, J.T. Walsh, James B. Sikking, M. Emmett Walsh, and Susan Hogan. There are also some terrific action scenes. This film is guaranteed to keep the viewer on the edge of one's seat.The plot is simple. A woman, Carol Hunnicutt (Anne Archer), goes on a blind date with an attorney (J.T. Walsh) with whom a well meaning friend has set her up. He gets a business call that he needs to return, as soon as possible. She accompanies him to his apartment. She excuses herself, while he makes his call, and goes to use the bathroom. In the meantime, he is visited by one of his clients, Leo Watts, and another man. Watts confronts the lawyer with the fact that he knows that the lawyer has gotten himself into a financial hole and has, consequently, stolen a lot of money from him. The lawyer, knowing Watts to be a ruthless mobster, begins to cry. Carol, overhearing the commotion, cautiously opens the door, only to see the other man with Watts execute her blind date. Terror stricken, she sits mute for some time and then disappears to a remote Canadian location, where she is ulimately tracked down by Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Robert Caulfield (Gene Hackman) and a Los Angeles Police Department Detective, who has accompanied him. They are working on the case involving the death of the attorney, and they believe that she may have some relevant information, as her fingerprints were discovered at the crime scene and traced back to her via an old anti-war protest arrest. Unfortunately, Watts' men also find her, almost simultaneously, and the games begin in earnest with the detective killed in the process. Robert and Carol make a run for it and board a train headed towards Vancouver. Right behind them are the hit men, who also board the same train, hot on their heels. A life or death cat and mouse game commences. What happens on that train will keep the viewer riveted to the screen. This is, without a doubt, a well executed thriller.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent thriller!
Review: Well-made suspenser has assistant DA Gene Hackman escorting witness Anne Archer across the Canadian Rockies onboard a train with mob killers hunting her down. One of director Peter Hyams' best films, this has good characters, great editing (you can't tell it's a stuntman hanging on the train instead of Hackman) and breathtaking photography. This is destined to please demanding viewers everywhere. This one is a MUST!
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