Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Runaway Train (Kino Lorber) Blu-ray Review
Collapse
X
Collapse
-
Runaway Train (Kino Lorber) Blu-ray Review
Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: March 16th, 2021.
Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
Cast: Jon Voight, Rebecca De Mornay, Eric Roberts, Kyle T. Heffner, John P. Ryan, T.K. Carter
Year: 1985
Purchase From Amazon
Runaway Train - Movie Review:
Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky and based on an original story by none other than Akira Kurosawa, Cannon Films' 1985 picture Runaway Train remains a ruthlessly efficient and insanely tense film more than thirty years after its big screen debut.
Oscar "Manny" Manheim (Jon Voight) is doing time in Stonehaven Prison, a maximum security joint in the wilds of Alaska. He's a tough guy. You don't want to mess with him. In fact, he's such a tough guy that the warden quite literally had him welded into his cell. When he connects with fellow inmate Buck McGeehy (Eric Roberts) they pair makes an escape out through the sewers of the facility. Once they're outside, the hop a train and figure they can just bide their time until they are once again free men - but of course, if it were that easy this would be a pretty dull film. A few miles down the track, the train's engineer has a heart attack. With no one at the controls, our two escaped convicts and a railway employee named Sara (Rebecca De Mornay) have no choice but to make their way to the engine to try and stop the thing. Sara isn't particularly excited to be helping these guys but again, you don't want to mess with Manny. She doesn't have much of a choice.
Of course, their escape does not go unnoticed. Once Warden Ranken (John P. Ryan) is wise to their flight, all bets are off. He coerces two men to help him - Frank Barstow (Kyle T. Heffner) and Dave Prince (T.K. Carter) - to help him catch the convicts. But that won't be easy either. Ranken has a serious grudge against Manny and will do whatever he needs to do in order to bring him down. If that means putting him down once and for all, so be it. He's just looking for an excuse.
Rewritten by a real life former convict named Edward Bunker (the same Edward Bunker that played Mr. Blue in Reservoir Dogs), Kurosawa originally intended to direct the film himself. When that didn't happen the script wound up with Cannon Films They brought on Bunker as well as writer Paul Zindel to Americanize it, cast it perfectly, put it in the hands of talented director Andrei Konchalovsky and the rest? Well, it's action movie history. One of those rare films that fires on all cylinders while still managing to do everything right, Runaway Train is nothing if not intense. The movie barrels down the tracks like the vehicle it's named after and once the action starts, it does not let up. There are a few similarly great 'train' movies like - Emperor Of The North and The Train being great examples - but as excellent as they might be (and they really are excellent), this one wins for 'edge of your seat suspense.' No easy feat, mind you, but see it for yourself and tell me I'm wrong.
Not all of the film's success stems from a great story and the impressive direction. The locations are perfect - you really get a feeling for just how damn cold it must be out there - and the cinematography is top notch. There are some really impressive camera angles used throughout the movie to capture the action in just the right way.
And then there are the performances. Rebecca De Mornay, John P. Ryan, Kyle T. Heffner and T.K. Carter are all great, but as much fun as they are to watch, it's Roberts and Voight who own this movie. Roberts' character is annoying. He's supposed to be annoying and he succeeds and convincing us that yes, he's an irritating guy to spend a lot of time with. However, there's something likeable about him. He's the nicer side of the coin. Roberts plays the part perfectly and was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his work in this movie. On the flip side of that aforementioned coin, however, is John Voight. It's hard to imagine anyone doing a better job of playing the hardened criminal type than Voight does in this picture. Manny is an absolute beast, a man so fond of profanity that you start to go numb from all the expletives that fly out of his mouth and a man very much prone to violence. He's intense, quite possibly insane, and eminently watchable in this film. He too was nominated for an Oscar and actually won a Golden Globe for this performance. Both men would go on to make some questionable choices in roles in the future, but here, they're perfect. Also be on the lookout for early, albeit small, roles for Tiny Lister and Danny Trejo!
Runaway Train - Blu-ray Review:
Runaway Train arrives on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber framed at 1.85.1 widescreen in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer, with the feature taking up 34.8GBs of space on the 50GB disc. In short, the picture quality here is great. There's way more detail than was ever noticeable on the old DVD and the colors look more lifelike and accurate. The image is clean, free of any major damage to the source, while the filmic grain structure remains intact and looks nice and natural. Skin tones are good, black levels are nice and solid and there's lots of texture and depth here to appreciate. At the same time, the image appears free of noise reduction, compression artifacts or edge enhancement. No complaints here!
Audio chores are handled by a 24-bit English language DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo track. Optional subtitles are provided in English only. Again, we get a nice upgrade from the old DVD release. Dialogue is clean, clear and easily discernable throughout the movie while the score sounds nice and punchy. There's a lot of power behind some of the sound effects, especially once that train starts barreling down the tracks, but at the same time the levels stay properly balanced and the track remains free of any audible hiss or distortion.
The main extra on the disc is a really enjoyable commentary with actor Eric Roberts moderated by film historians David Del Valle and C. Courtney Joyner. It's a pretty engaging talk that covers how Roberts came to be cast in the picture, his thoughts on working with Andrei Konchalovsky, what it was like acting alongside some of the co-stars who appear with him in the picture, the stunt work, the locations and spending so much time on a train for this movie. Lots of great information here, it's interesting stuff and there's never a dull moment.
The disc also includes a Trailers From Hell entry with commentary from Rod Lurie, the film's original theatrical trailer, menus and chapter selection. The isolated score and liner notes that were included with the Twilight Time Blu-ray release have not been ported over to this reissue from Kino.
Runaway Train - The Final Word:
More extras are always welcome, but otherwise Kino's Blu-ray release of Runaway Train is a good one. The movie looks and sounds excellent and the commentary is absolutely worth taking the time to listen to. As to the film itself, it remains a ridiculously tense and entertaining thriller with loads of atmosphere and some unforgettable characters and set pieces.
Posting comments is disabled.
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (271)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4140)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2512)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (385)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (295)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (496)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: April 30th, 2024.
Director: Lee Frost
Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
Year: 1969
Purchase From Amazon
Hot Spur – Movie Review:
Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:53 AM -
-
Released by: Mondo Macabro
Released on: April 9th, 2024.
Director: Max Pecas
Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
Year: 1985
Purchase From Amazon
Death Squad – Movie Review:
Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:46 AM -
-
Released by: Quality X
Released on: February 28th, 2024.
Director: Chuck Vincent
Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
Year: 1982
Purchase From Amazon
Roommates – Movie Review:
Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:10 PM -
-
Released by: Blue Underground
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
Year: 1970
Purchase From Amazon
Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:
Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:07 PM -
-
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Saul Bass
Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
Phase IV – Movie Review:
Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:02 PM -
-
Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
Year: 1969-1972
Purchase From Amazon
The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:
Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this...-
Channel: Movies
03-13-2024, 11:30 AM -