Runaway Train

Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, Runaway Train follows two convicts (Jon Voight’s Manny and Eric Roberts’ Buck) as they successfully escape from a maximum-security prison in Alaska and eventually stow away on board a locomotive – with problems ensuing as said locomotive begins to careen out of control after its conductor dies of a heart attack. Filmmaker Konchalovsky, armed with Djordje Milicevic, Paul Zindel, and Edward Bunker’s screenplay, does a fantastic job of initially luring the viewer into the proceedings, as Runaway Train kicks off with a tremendously promising opening stretch that makes good use out of the various prison-movie conventions and tropes one might’ve anticipated – with the watchable vibe heightened by Voight’s impressively convincing turn as the tough-as-nails protagonist. (Roberts’ typically broad work here doesn’t fare quite as well, unfortunately, although John P. Ryan steps into the shoes of his agreeably vicious prison-warden character with a scenery-chewing gusto that proves impossible to resist.) It’s disappointing to note, then, that Runaway Train slowly-but-surely loses its grip on the viewer once it progresses into its erratic and far-from-enthralling midsection, as the emphasis is placed on a series of less-than-captivating sequences detailing Manny and Buck’s uneventful, overly chatty exploits aboard the title conveyance (and it doesn’t help, certainly, that the dialogue is, by and large, completely overwrought and unconvincing). The action-packed finale is, as a result, mostly unable to pack the exciting, visceral punch that Konchalovsky has obviously intended, which does, in the end, cement Runaway Train‘s place as a periodically effective yet predominantly tedious misfire that squanders a seemingly foolproof setup.

** out of ****