Le train de la mort

This film has a lot going for it: A simple, but nonetheless engaging, plot, cool action sequences and some fantastic casting. Patrick Stewart and Christopher Lee are, it almost goes without saying, superb. Alexandra Paul really should get more lead roles and Ted Levine makes a pretty good bad guy.

Top marks, though, go to Pierce Brosnan. Despite having to deliver some truly awful dialogue in places he brings the role off to perfection. His "Mike Graham" could be James Bond using a pseudonym (although without the gadgets), and it's no wonder that he went on to become the best Bond so far (and yes I do remember Connery).

This film rates up there with True Lies and The Rock as one of those films that sort of is a Bond film really, even tho' it isn't.

When I found `Detonator' at the video store and saw that it had Patrick Stewart and Pierce Brosnan in the staring roles, I got my hopes up. I thought, with Captain Pacard and James Bond in the movie, it should be pretty good. Then I saw that Alexandra Paul and Christopher Lee were also in the movie and thought with a cast like that, how could the film help but be good. Well, I found out.

The premise of the movie is not bad; a fanatical Russian military man (Christopher Lee) builds a nuclear bomb and tries to detonate it, on a train bound for Iran, to trigger a military resurrection of the former Soviet Union. Of course, an elite team of United Nations commandos (Patrick Stewart, Pierce Brosnan and Alexandra Paul) tries to stop the train before ultimate fireworks show takes place. Maybe not the most original storyline for an action/adventure movie, but it had some potential.

Unfortunately, not even this cast could make up for the horrible script `Detonator' offers. This is not the first script David Jackson has written, but it sure seems like it. In fact, the dialog is so dry and uninspired, that the chemistry one would expect between actors of this caliber is absolutely non-existent; which makes this movie boring, and a real disappointment.

Anyone watching this film because Alistair Maclean's name is on it will be sorely let down. A weak plot involving stolen nukes is nothing you haven't seen before, done better. Some of the acting (Brosnan, Stewart and Paul) is good, but Ted Levine is simply laughable as the secondary antagonist. His silly redneck character weakens any threat to his scenes with Brosnan. The venerable Christopher Lee is rather miscast as an evil Russian mastermind.

Action scenes and photography are OK, but the editing, music and direction are dull. I also found it funny that it is some sort of UN team that goes after the nukes, where in real life it would be the Navy Seals or Delta Force that would be sent to deal with this train (and would certainly do a better job).

Here are my suggestions for the cartoon bubbles over the actors heads that showed what they were really thinking at the time:

Pierce Brosnan: "My God, what am I doing in this piece of garbage"?

Patrick Stewart: "Where am I? This isn't a starship".

Miss ex-Babewatch: "Why won't anyone take me seriously? Mine aren't as big as Pamela's. See?"

What a dreadful piece of crap. No wonder Alistair Maclean didn't want anything to do with it.

"Death Train" is not that bad.You can watch it easily but you can't expect anything from this movie.Big stars are joined in this one,such as Pierce Brosnan,Patrick Stewart and Christopher Lee.This movie isn't good but it isn't bad too.Somewhere stuck in the middle.I know the film locations so it's a bit interesting to watch the movie and realize that movie stars of this class where in your country.It's not that usual to see Brosnan,Stewart and Lee in Croatia and I think that they all did good job.Most of them did this because of money but hey isn't that what all people do?I realize that there are lots of mistakes in this movie and that plot is quite stupid but try to turn off for a 90 min. and just watch the movie.It will work,just don't think about reality of the situation because there aren't any.But we've got excellent male actors in this movie and everybody knows about them.But they have to act sometimes in movies like this.5/10