Runaway Train Review
A decade later, there would be the wildly successful Speed, featuring Sandra_Bullock on a runaway bus. In 1985, it was Rebecca DeMornay on a Runaway Train, and it was not a big hit. In fact, out-of-control vehicles, mostly trains, have been a staple of film comedies and melodramas since the days of the silent films. Runaway Train takes the simple premise and makes a compelling movie of it, with two sinister escaped convicts (played superbly by Jon_Voight and Eric_Roberts) trapped on the train with De_Mornay, facing certain doom. The script is taut, crafty, and suspenseful, and the characterizations are superb. The director is a Russian, Andrei_Konchalvosky, and the script was based on a story by acclaimed Japanese director Akira_Kurosawa, whose work on it got derailed. The film works surprisingly well, mixing Roberts's usual crazed character with Voight's best performance since Coming_Home, and providing the underrated DeMornay with a second consecutive unglamorous role after Testament. Michael Betzold, Rovi
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