Last Passenger

Dougray Scott is a fantastic actor and I always look out for him in films (check out new town killers in which he is mesmeric). So this film stayed above average - just - due to his presence. aside from that it is an average thriller, not edge of your seat stuff (train or otherwise) but definitely worth a view if there's nothing else doing. i think it is unfair to mark this down anymore and anyone who totally disses this film does not realise how many truly poor movies there are out there and this is definitely not one of them. Think "Speed" without the gorgeousness of keanu or sandra nor the mental insanity of denis hopper at his best. So if you can get over that, you should be fairly entertained. The direction and pacing is good, the characterisation is also above average.

There is nothing wrong with this movie and it's a darned sight better than many others out there. Good acting, excellent FX (for it's low budget), good suspense, explosions, interesting characters - a love story & a cute kid. What more do people want?

I really don't understand the angry hate being thrown at that poor child actor - guys, he's a 7 year old CHILD! ROFL Are you expecting an Oscar- worthy performance? I actually think he did an outstanding job and was very believable unlike many of the Hollywood child-faves who so often come across as way too adult and precocious to convince me.

As for all the high-horse comments about the accuracy of certain details - come on... really? Personally I couldn't give a hoot about what trains run where or how railway couplings really work and know nothing about London's train service or how far things are from other things in jolly old England. If you do then congratulations, you know stuff I don't. But it doesn't really matter in the slightest for this movie and viewers like me don't know or care. It's fiction, roll with it, I don't know of any movie that's 100% believable or factual, not even documentaries.

Anyway - if you're looking for a light thriller that's well produced and a little different rent it and enjoy. It's not the greatest thriller ever made but it's not a bad little flick.

As amazing as it seems, Britain has managed to churn out a B-movies that doesn't include a single zombie, no (middle-class actors playing) cockney gangsters and not a reel of found footage in sight. Instead, what we have here is a kind of 'Speed' film.

Dougray Scott plays a single father, who's taking his young son on the train just before Christmas. Unfortunately for him and the handful of passengers left on board (including the single female of appropriate age who just so happens to find single fathers REALLY attractive), the train refuses to stop and they must work out a way of getting off before it smashes into whatever there is at the end of train tracks in Britain (a wall of spikes, perhaps? I don't actually know).

So, what you have is a reasonably passable British thriller, which, at some points, manages to hit the right notes. The train is a familiar setting (at least for us Brits, anyway) and so makes a relatable place (plus I'm guessing it was a pretty cheap set for the film-makers). However, unlike Keanu Reeves' classic action movie, where the bus couldn't slow down and was in perilous danger at every turn, the train just stays on the tracks. Effectively, the few passengers left on board could just sit around in relative comfort for most of the movie, only really needing to figure out a way of getting off five minutes before the end. Therefore, you have a fair amount of time where they're doing just that.

The other downside is the kid. Yes, I know kids in films get a bad name, but this one really isn't that good. Luckily, he's not in it that much, but when he is you'll wish he wasn't.

Overall, not bad for a film on the cheap. If you're bored of zombies, gangsters and found footage B-movies you may enjoy this one (just don't dwell on the slightly dodgy computer special effects when the train catches fire).

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I have just watched this movie and although it's never going to be a classic I considered it a perfectly good watch for its 1hr 36 minutes. The premise of the movie is not original nor is the progression right through to the end but as a complete movie it delivers most respectfully. Naturally you will get the anorak geeks on here slating the movie for technical inaccuracies but if I wanted to know the exact workings of a train I'd not have any friends and sit on a train platform with a Thermos of tea and a note pad like these 'Billy-No-Mates' do. For normal people I want to just be immersed in a film for 1.5 hours. I thought the acting was OK and contrary to one reviewer from Bermuda, Dougray Scott's voice is clear and not a mumble, nor is is it a strange accent. Typical of someone not from the UK thinking all Scots should sound like either Billy Connolly or Mrs Doubtfire! Yes I sound like Dick Van Dyke from Mary Poppins because I come from London! All in all a good film to pass an afternoon with.

LAST PASSENGER is a British movie and a low-budget addition to the string of "single location" thrillers. In this one, a handful of passengers are stranded on an abandoned train at night, a train that's being driven by a man who may or may not be out of his mind. What ensues is reasonably good given the set-up, with plenty of suspense and low-rent heroics as those trapped try to work out a way to improve their situation.

One of the real strengths of LAST PASSENGER lies in the calibre of the cast members. Dougray Scott is a particularly dependable face when it comes to genre fare (such as the lacklustre DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS miniseries) and he acquits himself well with the family-man-turned-group-leader role here. Kara Tointon is little more than a pretty face, but there also decent turns from the reliable David Schofield and Lindsay Duncan. Newcomer Iddo Goldberg is a hoot as the volatile Pole who plays his own part in the proceedings.

A few elements of LAST PASSENGER are a little cheesy, such as some of the CGI effects, and there's a nod to UNDER SIEGE 2 at one point which destroys the carefully-maintained realism seen elsewhere. But for the most part this is gripping, tension-filled stuff and a film whose restraint works in its favour.