Runaway Train: Andrei Konchalovsky

I really hoped that I would enjoy Andrei Konchalovsky's Runaway Train more than I did. Everything about it seemed to tickle my cinematic funny bone: a story by AKIRA KUROSAWA, a simple action premise, giant stunt set-pieces, and a slow burn first act. But dammit if the characters didn't ruin it for me. ALL of the characters were either annoying, insufferable, or insufferably annoying. Even Jon Voight's performance became ludicrously over-the-top with his New York gangster accent devolving into drunken Boston sailor in the last twenty or so minutes. It's painfully obvious that much of the screenplay was written by somebody who didn't speak English as a first language: there are awkward lines galore and bizarre interjections ("God will make everything all right") that might have worked or made sense in a different language or cultural context, but here they just miss the mark. The stuntwork was fantastic and the action scenes were magnificent. But they weren't enough to rescue the film from awful characters and screenwriting. And what was up with that female train engineer? Why was she so unnecessarily hateful?

6/10