Runaway Train

Starring: Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, Rebecca De Mornay, Kyle T. Heffner, John P. Ryan, T.K. Carter, Kenneth McMillan
Directed by: Andrei Konchalovsky
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
1985

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary:Two convicts (Jon Voight, Eric Roberts) break out of prison in Alaska and hop aboard a train. Unfortunately for them, the conductor has a heart attack and they find themselves on a uncontrolled, runaway train.

Review:

Tim: Perhaps the most surprisingly thing about Runaway Train is that although it first appears like a forgettable action film, the movie was able to land three Academy Award nominations- Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Film Editing. For a movie like this, that's very impressive. Unfortunately, the movie itself ends up being closer to the initial impression- it's an okay film, but it's too forgettable and flawed. I'm not especially fond of this movie.

Even looking at this movie through the lens of 1985, it still has some problematic aspects to it. First off, the attempt to film it almost like a documentary does give it a gritty, realistic feel to it. Unfortunately, it also makes it look a bit cheap. While a great deal went into the special effects and splicing the movie to increase its suspense and tension, it doesn't always look that impressive (and I mean by 1985's standards, not today's).

Perhaps the bigger concern I had was with the cast. I have to admit, I was fairly stunned when I learned that both Jon Voight and Eric Roberts were both nominated for Academy Awards for their performances. Now, they aren't all bad, but I would not have thought either of them award worthy. I give Voight more credit than Roberts. Voight embraced the dark side of his character- he makes an impressive physical transformation to play Manny. He has some truly remarkable moments where you see this deranged, broken side to his character. I can see why Voight was nominated- he does have tremendous moments. The issue is that his performance is uneven- for every spectacular moment he has, there's another moment where he overacts. There were several scenes in the film where I hated his performance- it just felt too over-the-top and forced. When you add up the good and the bad, the good barely outweighs the negative. So, I'd say Voight gives a good performance- I just wouldn't have given him an Academy Award nomination. Eric Roberts is even worse. His performance was annoying. He tries way, way too hard. I never believed his performance for a second- it always seemed like Roberts was acting. Nothing felt authentic about his character. I'm quite frankly flabbergasted that Roberts received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In my mind, he actively detracted from the film every second he was on screen. There's almost nothing I liked about his performance. How in the world he received acclaim for this is beyond me.

Now, it's not just Voight and Roberts who are guilty of overacting. Rebecca De Mornay has a few moments where her performance felt forced and silly. And, don't even get me started on the supporting cast in the railroad's office. Almost everyone there gave these oddly over-the-top performances. I never believed them as actual human beings- they felt like absurd characters in a bad movie. As a whole, this cast collectively give fairly bad performances. It's rare for me to criticize an entire cast, so director Andrei Konchalovsky clearly deserves criticism for allowing this to happen.

Now, the train sequences are fairly strong. A highlight has to be when one train is moving off the main track and the runaway train is barreling towards it. The destruction caused is impressive. As a whole, the editing in this film was fairly astounding. It's perhaps the film's biggest strength. The nomination for Best Film Editing is the one the movie undoubtedly earned. That translates into some exciting moments. The Alaska setting helped the movie, giving the whole affair a sense of isolation and desolation. The sequences on board the train are clearly the highlight of the film (and with a title of Runaway Train, they better be). The prison escape sequence was surprisingly devoid of suspense. The movie treated it as a foregone conclusion that the prisoners would escape. I'd have liked to see a little more suspense during those early scenes.

The technical side of the film is more impressive than the rest of the movie. The acting is quite bad, as discussed. The characters were fairly unlikeable- we're not given any reason to like either of the escaped convicts. One is pretty much a monster and the other is too stupid to recognize he's being used. When De Mornay's character shows up, she does very little of any value. We're not told much about her, so it's hard to care about her in the least. The rest of the cast are either selfish or buffoonish. It's hard to care about a movie when you literally can't like a single character in the cast.

Runaway Train has a number of fatal flaws that prevent this from being an effective movie. And yet, despite its many weaknesses, it still manages to tell a fairly exciting story. There's something very engaging about a runaway train- all those tons of steel, barreling down a track at 90 miles an hour, disaster around every turn. Even though I had many complaints about the film, it still managed to entertain me. I'd call this a decent movie, but one heavy with flaws.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Narrow Margin