Blu-ray Specs
Video: 1080i High Definition
Audio: DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio / 5.1 Dolby Digital
This film was written and Directed by Brian King whom is relatively new to the business in all aspects. The style of the film is reminiscent of classic thrillers of Hitchcock and a tribute to The Maltese Falcon, but with added blood and very little gore. The film is set on a train, but with no real specific time or place of where this train is or is heading, but in real life the filming takes place in Bulgaria. The cast is small and consists of Danny Glover, Steve Zahn and Leelee Sobieski and a few others to help the story along.
Danny Glover is an old conductor, Miles, whom has spent most of his life with this train and knows all of its ins and outs. At the first stop, a man appears out of the fog just as the train is set to pull out and head down the line. As the train sets off the man sits in the rear car that also has a struggling insurance salesman Peter (Zahn) and a young medical student Chloe (Sobieski). Not long after the man boards the train, the man dies and in his possession is a gift box containing a wooden container. Miles finds that he must do his job and call in the dead body, but when he is gone, Peter and Chloe look inside the box to find what seems to be the object of their wildest desires. They inform Miles of the box and insist that he take a look. Then the heat is turned up as they plan out how to keep the contents of the box and rid themselves of the body. What starts as a simple plan twists and turns as outside occurrences effect the next move.
The extras section is intentionally displayed using standard definition resolution to show the contrast from the film. There is the movie trailer, a making of and cast and crew interviews. Also there is a photo gallery presented in HD.
The difference in the quality of the standard to HD resolution is a good display and was a cleansing for the eyes. Although most of the film was shot inside of the train, the outside shots were comprised of CGI and were noticeable but not too bad. Audio always helps a film set the tone and mood of the current on screen dilemma. This sound was very helpful in heightening the suspense of the film.
Overall, I’m not too much of a Danny Glover fan, but I feel like this role suited him well. Steve Zahn really took me out of his traditional comical role by doing this drama and I look forward to seeing what he does next. Leelee is a great actress and displays a certain creepiness and sexiness at the same time. The cast as a whole pulled off a great script and performed excellently. The story was terrific, but I would warn you to leave out the extras on this one, not very interesting.
Reviewed by Michael Albaugh
