zondag 18 mei 2014

Last Passenger (2013)

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Genre : Action/Thriller
Country : UK

Cast :
Dougray Scott : Lewis Shaler
David Schofield : Peter Carmichael
Iddo Goldberg : Jan Klimowski

Director :
Omid Nooshin

Summary
A small group of everyday passengers on a speeding London commuter train battle their warped driver who has a dark plan for everyone on-board.

My opinion

"Speed", but this time a train in a leading role somewhere in England, instead of a bus. That means that there definitely won't be one surprise element and that is the sudden swerve to another lane or turning into a different road. This train drives its predetermined route from point A to B. No person will or can intervene. The only thing that possibly could occur is an unexpected obstacle on the track. This also occurs exactly once in "Last Passenger". This event doesn't even threaten to derail the onrushing train. In other words, this film is as exciting as a pair of old underpants worn by some grandmother.

The train with which Lewis and Max return home, is unexpectedly hijacked by a crazy person with suicidal tendencies. You will only see this suddenly emerging new driver, in a flash. The reason that brought him to this action is something you can only guess about. There's not even a brief explanation about that. An ill-disposed politician perhaps, or a peace protester who wants to make a statement? I haven't got a clue. What you get as a result is a group of 6 people who rush from one end of the train to the other end, looking for a solution and a way to get the moving train to stop.

And then we get a kind of incredibly implausible "Die Hard" ending as apotheosis, when Lewis has a heroic moment in which he remains miraculously intact. I can' reveal too much of course, otherwise there remains absolutely nothing from this slight average action thriller.

Is there really nothing positive to say about this tiny film? Of course! In the first place, it's a relatively short film of about 97 minutes. So it's a kind of an evening filler when there's nothing on the tube. And the interaction between the six remaining passengers is further elaborated in a proper manner and it's interesting to get to learn the different characters in the course of the film. Surgeon Lewis Shaler (Dougray Scott) is together with his son Max (Joshua Kaynama) on the way home with a night train. He is a single father and during the journey he gets a call that he should report to the hospital to operate a victim of a traffic accident. Max accidentally bumps into Sarah Barwell (Kara Tointon) and this lovely lady spills her coffee all over herself. That is the beginning of a budding romance between Sarah and Lewis.

Kara Tointon has a graceful appearance with the most charming smile ever. That's the least you can say. She has such charisma most men fall immediately for. In other words, Kara is a tasty looking girl. Then we get to know the quite arrogant Jan Klimowski (Iddo Goldberg) who looks very suspicious in the beginning, the distinguished Peter Carmichael (David Schofield) who's lecturing all the time and Elaine Middleton (Lindsay Duncan) who is a kind of stoic lady and only would be surprised about the fact that she dropped a stitch in her knitting . With this company of six people, we have to put up till the end of this crazy ride.

"Last Passenger" is an attempt to present an exciting action but doesn't succeed in this. Ultimately, it is only an abnormal train ride with a group of people who are forced to put up with each other and gradually get to know each other better. It's just a matter of killing time during a train ride ... How appropriate ...