Transsiberian
2008 Directed by Brad Anderson
Synopsis
You can't escape your lies.
A Trans-Siberian train journey from China to Moscow becomes a thrilling chase of deception and murder when an American couple encounters a mysterious pair of fellow travelers.
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An incredibly slow and uneventful start that leads to everyone acting completely out of character just so the story has somewhere to go, and it all hinges on the lead being an idiot.
Not good.
There were a few good moments (the disposing of the camera bag scene is like something straight out of Hitchcock), but for the most part, I couldn't get into it. If the hero did one smart thing, the *entire* rest of the movie would never happen. Therefore, I didn't care about anything that happened after that point because I couldn't not think about how easy it was to avoid.
If your story requires a full hour of set-up and then a bunch of downright dumb decisions by your main characters, perhaps you're telling the wrong story.
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Starts off like a modern-day "The Lady Vanishes" and then bounces jerkily around before ending up as a somewhat standard thriller that teeters on the brink of Generic Action Movie at the end but pulls back. The whole thing is rather sloppy and relies on a combination of extreme contrivance (oh no drugs are falling out of my backpack! please don't look at the next picture on my camera!) and bafflingly stupid actions from Emily Mortimer (going off into the siberian wilderness alone with sleazy euro guy is fun! lying to russian cia is fun!) to push things along. Even so, there's some great moments of drawn-out tension from scene to scene, and it's all quite pretty and atmospheric and…
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Letterboxd Festival 4
It's a real shame Brad Anderson's career hasn't gone in more interesting directions since the solid Session 9 and The Machinist because this, just like his latest film, was pretty poor. Hitchcock is obviously the major reference point but the film feels like an amalgamation of bits from far better movies clumsily stitched together. The whole thing was rather dull and predictable until you get to the final third which was a cop out and made me dislike the film even more.
The location has plenty of potential but is largely wasted and it never makes good use of the foreboding landscape. The performances are passable with Mortimer being the one genuine bright spot but they deserved better material than this.
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The fourth film of the Letterboxd Festival
Poor Woody. He is so awesome in everything. They should have focused more on him. But he was great with what he got. Emily Mortimer was also very good but her character was not very likeable at all. Had a hard time with some of her scenes because what she did or didn't do was just stupid. But then Woody came and saved the day for me.
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Maybe because I was expecting this movie to be great, since Steve Grzesiak gave me a wonderful suggestion for a movie before, I couldn't find it truly awesome.
The idea of crossing the Siberia to release some kind of cold humanity inside people is good. The scenarios could give some awesome frames (Kurosawa managed to use this scenarios very well in Dersu Uzala, for example) and the themes to study inside this white and cold environment are awesome too. The problem is that the movie starts doing it well but it in some point it falls into a vulgar thriller without originality. The plot ends with a superficial and too romantic twist that ignores the depth of the subjects it…
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Fourth film of the Letterboxd film festival
This film is let down by a predictable final act in which the director is navelgazing at his script and forgets he is making a film.
There is an enormous amount of good stuff here as well though. The acting is great and the sense of paranoia palpable, which makes this a more than decent thriller which I enjoyed quite a bit.
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Such a strange movie. Unlikable characters and overly drawn-out scenes interspersed with real suspense. The final act (and, in particular, scene) somehow makes up for the parts that I wanted to fast-forward through.
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Ein amerikanisches Ehepaar fährt von China nach Moskau mit der transsibirischen Eisenbahn. Dabei teilen sie ihr Abteil mit einem weiteren Pärchen, mit dem sie zwar gut klar kommen, das aber irgendwie zwielichtig wirkt. Als sie erfahren, dass Drogen im Spiel sind, wurden sie schon längst mit in die Sache hineingezogen und müssen sich nun selber vor der russischen Polizei in acht nehmen.
Ein gut gespielter Film vor interessanter Kulisse, der keineswegs langweilig war. Zumindest beim ersten ansehen... Aber er lässt sich unheimlich viel Zeit bis wirklich etwas passiert, und deshalb würde ich ihn mir wohl kein zweites mal ansehen. Ein bisschen mehr Spannung hätte ihm gut getan. Mein Puls blieb jedenfalls ganz ruhig, und als es dann ganz am Ende…
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Good Lord, what a slog.
The spin up to the actual "excitement" of this "thriller" could be seen as character development...if the character development was anything more than exactly what the people portrayed themselves to be.
There is some mild tension once, ahem, this train gets rolling, but I have seen Strangers on a Train and you, sir, are no Strangers on a Train!
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Brad Anderson le gusta dirigir thrillers en donde nada es lo que parece (su cinta previa fue la excelente "The Machinist", con Cristian Bale). En "Transsiberian" lentamente nos atrapa en una historia con giros tan diabolicos e impredescibles que al final podemos agradecer que supo manejar la tension habilmente sin perder de vista a los personajes (Emily Mortimer da la mejor actuacion).
Con ecos de Hitchcock, "Transsiberian" es un buen thriller para aquellos que prefieran una cinta de suspenso inteligente y atmosferica. -
I wanted to like this much more than I actually did. A classic slow-burn set up, some great tension and unexpected turns and then.. it descends into an irritating and inconsistent mess. Very unfortunate, as the first half was right up my street.
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With such a great cast (Woody Harrelson, Ben Kingsley, Kate Mara) I was expecting something a bit high caliber in terms of plot, predictability, and intensity and at times this movie felt like it was trying to copy Strangers on a Train. I simply just liked this, despite the relatively slow start and unrealistic ending. I wouldn't recommend it, but I wouldn't say avoid it.
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The film was wonderfully crafted and acted - My only issue was with the writing. The plot points felt forced and contrived, and the dialogue was quite hammy at points. Thankfully, the dialogue's shortcomings is obscured by the great actors delivering it. Overall, it's a recommendation to people who are Mystery/Thriller fans, but I struggle to give it the thumbs up to those who aren't.
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Quality thriller. It's nice to see Woody Harrelson in a role where he isn't the tough guy. Also I think Ben Kingsley has played almost every nationality in his career.
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Selvfølgelig er det moro å se en av de store blockbusterne som kommer på løpebånd fra våre amerikanske venner. Flotte effekter, gigantiske eksplosjoner, kjente skuespillere og ikke minst er disse alltid en snakkis. Problemet er bare at man i de fleste tilfeller vet hva man får. Da er det mer interessant å plukke opp en relativt ukjent rett-på-dvd film som for eksempel Transsiberian, som ikke bare at har muligheten til å skuffe deg, men også overraske deg på en særdeles positiv måte.
Man har lov til å bli litt skeptisk når filmen går rett på dvd og det er også lov til å heve øyenbryna når filmen byr på to store stjerne som Woody Harrelson (Zombieland) og Ben Kingsley, og…