Train (2009/Lionsgate DVD)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: D     Film: D

 

 

Back in 2007, Director Gideon Raff made a thriller called The Killing Floor (2007) that had its moments, as this link will show:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6393/The+Killing+Floor+(2007/THINKFilm)

 

 

With that, I hoped he might find even stronger material and turns out to be a good thriller filmmaker.  Unfortunately, he has made Train (2008), a major missed opportunity that could have been an effective thriller but is a highly formulaic torture porn entry that is everything we have seen before.  This includes people who are foreign and happen to like to cut and mutilate bodies, though this is never explained, people having fun for a limited time and all the blood and make-up effects you can imagine.

 

This one stars the likable Thora Birch (American Beauty, Ghost World) with some other credible unknown actors, but they are really given nothing to do.  The idea that they are wrestlers on tour is interesting, but is then dropped as soon as the first stabbing, impaling, etc. occurs.  The result is 94 wasted minutes of talent and time.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is a little soft, but is actually a pretty good for the format (shot in 35mm by Martina Radwan) despite being slightly color-gutted and slightly toned down.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is also lively and well recorded, but the sound effects are overdone to the point of being silly and ineffective.  A behind the scenes making of featurettes is the only extra.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo