Plot: A runaway train barrels through the Mexican countryside, hijacked by escaped prisoners, and it’s only a matter of time before they begin to execute the passengers. Enter Ryan, a special agent with one gun and a whole bag of tricks.
Brian Genesse stars in this Die Hard clone that is not to be confused with the Pierce Brosnan starring movie Death Train or indeed the Arnold Vosloo movie of the same name. Genesse plays our fearless hero Ryan who is out to stop escaped criminal Weaver (Bentley Mitchum) who is holding a train full of passengers hostage.
I love the Die Hard clone sub genre and Death Train is still a good time with countless impressive explosions and regular fight scenes; it doesn’t do anything new but it’s diverting enough.
Genesse makes for an amiable lead and holds his own in the action scenes but most impressively it looks like he is performing his own stunts including running along the top of a moving train and more.
Bentley Mitchum overacts to hilarious proportions taking away any sense of menace from his antagonist. He mostly laughs for no reason, shouts and just comes across as nuts which I guess was the idea but they forgot to make him threatening. You still hate him and his gang of thugs who are an especially cruel lot that deserve the swift hand of justice that is Ryan who works his way through each of them leading to the explosive finale.
This is nothing we haven’t seen a billion times before and there is clearly stock footage from previous Nu Image films but it’s the kind of movie I can just relax to after a hard day at work.
Overall, Death Train is formulaic stuff and is practically the same movie as Under Siege 2 but if like me you have a soft spot for these kinds of movies (or Brian Genesse) then it’s a fun ride.
