Lasko : Le Train de la mort

This was a pretty good action movie with believable characters, given the genre. The ex- soldier Lasko sick of death and hiding out in a monastery (Mathis Landwehr) reluctantly takes up the gauntlet to be the Vatican's point man in a struggle against terrorists centered on a train bearing pilgrims from Cologne Germany to Lourdes.

You also have a deadly virus, helicopters, explosions, martial arts fights in and on top of the moving train, rockets, guns, knives, the works. Pretty good pyrotechnics too. The single most unbelievable thing in the plot is when a henchman parks his truck right across the tracks while waiting to pick up the bad guys, anticipating the train will stop before it hits him, thinking the bad guys control the engine. I cannot believe anyone would not simply have parked a few meters away, just off the tracks. Too stupid to believe even of idiots.

I could more readily swallow Vatican secret agents than that incident, though who knows. There were military orders of monks during the crusades.

Mathis Landwehr looks to be in great shape in the early scenes when he is shirtless. He has a fine physique: lean but muscular and looks completely believable as a martial artist.

I hope they do a sequel, as the title suggests. In English it was Lasko:Death Train. That suggests Lasko: the Next Adventure. I would watch it.

Great action film all round really. Saw this at Cannes 2005 and had a blast watching it and it was a class touch getting Arnold Vosloo to play the lead villain. My only complaint is that the lead character played by the highly versatile Mathis Landwehr does not get to demonstrate as much of his martial arts ability as he did in Kampfansage. However, the crashing explosion at the end of the film must be one of the largest i've ever seen in all my years. A genuine spectacle. Great fun from start to finish, and it's great to see an Action Concept film making the leap to English language. Although I generally like subtitled films myself, this will hopefully ensure that their films will be seen in more territories worldwide. Well worth seeking out.

It's not a terrible film. It just isn't that good either. The constant slow-motion throughout every action sequence was incredibly frustrating. The scenes were a bit disjointed at time: just as I thought a scene was actually going to add something useful to the story, it'd jump to another little snippet. In saying that though there were some entertaining moments and hey, who doesn't find kung-fu religion-protecting monks entertaining?

Other than being a little frustrating with just how much better the movie could've been given the reasonable-ish story line and the odd explosion, not too bad a movie. Worth watching if you're procrastinating from doing more useful things

Well, the theme is a bit different! And Il Papa has a cameo! Must be the habits, but I did find myself thinking "I'm sure Cadfael wouldn't have done that" but I suppose that technology has moved on since his time.

I thought the action was pretty good. Some good stunts. How did they do that amazing explosion? The story held together well with no glaring plot holes.

I suppose that there really must be some hard-headed Vatican clerics who have to plan realistically for security and logistics behind the scenes of such events as Lourdes.

Some of the human interest bits that were pasted on to flesh out the hero were rather wince-worthy. And he was a little too cherubic for my liking. As was the boy. And folk demanding coffee from their underlings.

Overall, I thought it was a well acted, all-action thriller - just a shame that the cloying bits were not edited out.

An ex-soldier traumatized by death turned monk fond of martial arts is our hero. Cutting 'Death Train' some slack because it's an action flick means you're willing to look past hokey elements. What's harder is how unexciting the whole thing feels, moves. Other than decent explosions in the first hour this is slow city. Arnold Vosloo isn't given much to work with as the head villain and Mathis Landwehr while sufficiently built up by some sad flashbacks is stuck in a cookie cutter tale.

A group of thieves lead by Lennart (Vosloo) break into a research facility, steal deadly viruses for their buyer to be used as bio weapons. To make their escape from the country they board a train disguised as priests, nuns which is full of people, religion clergy heading for Lourdes. A group of Monks including Lasko (Landwehr) are made aware of them and their plan and must save everyone on board before the worst case scenario can happen.

Beneath the surface this is a fairly obvious 'Die Hard' clone. A bunch of flicks have gone the train route before and it's serviceable if done right. You get the feeling that with a more capable director or fine tuning the script this could have been a fun trip, but what's on offer is rather flat. The religious element isn't heavy handed, but ultimately you're gonna spend nearly two hours and all you'll have to show for it is three decent explosions (two vehicle related, one helicopter) and quick fisticuffs (two sequences on top of the train).

The word that bests sums up 'Death Train' is generic. The energy level is pretty low for the first halve and mostly boring until things kick up a bit later. Scenes where head priests, police try to map out a plan are awful and misc side characters pad time. It's shot well from a technical standpoint, but never rises above. Also known as 'Lasko: DeathTrain' this would see a short lived tv series starring Landwehr years later.