Review of Transiberian

The Russian mob is probably the most lethal and respected organized crime syndicate in the world, and the film Transiberian displays their merciless tactics in all their grotesque brutality in this new thriller from director Brad Anderson.

Anderson has directed episodes of The Wire and The Shield so he is familiar with crime stories. For his latest feature film, he whisks us away from the U.S. slums and away to the other side of the world, where personal rights and ideals relating to justice take on different meanings.

Woody Harrelson, (White Men Can't Jump, Natural Born Killers, Palmetto) plays Roy and Emily Mortimer (Match Point, Lovely & Amazing, Red Belt) plays Jessie, an American couple from small town U.S.A. They don’t get much more mediocre or simplistic than these two.


Roy works in a hardware store back home and the two take trips to far off places to help destitute children in need. On their way back from China, they take the ride of their life on the famous Transiberian train line that snakes through China, Mongolia and Russia.

During their seven day journey across majestic mountain settings and through blistering cold, they befriend a young couple also traveling to Moscow. They wind up sharing a sleeping cabin with Carlos, (Eduardo Noriega) and Abby, (Kate Mara).

It turns out to be a great union with both couples hanging out in the meal car, getting wasted on vodka in the early afternoon, and de-boarding the train for some educational walking tours of train graveyards.

Aside from a little sexual tension between Carlos and Jessie, everyone seems to get along well, and because quarters are so tight, it is virtually impossible to sneak off for some nookie. But Jesse realizes there is something suspicious about the older, suave and handsome Carlos and his naive girlfriend and traveling companion Abby. Neither volunteer any information about each other and their past journeys and future plans are even more mysterious.


Carlos is a slippery character. Not only does he have the hots for his new, married American friend, but he is also a drug runner. When Roy gets left behind at the previous stop by accident, Carlos sees his chance and decides to go in for the kill by tempting Jesse to indulge in some vacation promiscuity.

And then, when she is not looking, he fills her luggage with the heroine he is transporting.

Jesse doesn’t realize she is finishing up this vacation as a mule until it’s too late, but she does put an end to Carolos’ advances by clubbing him over the head in a deserted field during a train layover.


Carlos has now been transformed from a worldly con artist and narcotics trafficker into a corpse-sicle, abandoned in the desolate frozen woods. Jesse is a wreck, as this is her first murder, and has no choice but to get back on the train in the hopes of leaving all her problems behind. Roy never discovers her devilish deeds and Jesse is hoping it stays that way.

Once back on the train, minus Abby and Carlos, Roy and Jesse get a new cabin mate in the form Ilya, played by Ben Kingsley, (Gandhi, Sexy Beast, Schindler's List). It just so happens that Ilya is a detective in the narcotics division of the Russian police force. He tells his new found acquaintances that he is traveling west to attend a law enforcement conference, but he's really hot on Carlos' trail.

In Transiberian, nothing is as it seems. Throughout the world, the police are known to protect and serve, but we are talking about the Russian authorities and their methods are a bit more aggressive and intense than in more civilized societies.

Though Kingsley is reaching the twilight of his career, and looks like a sweet and generous old man, nothing could be further from the truth. His ruthlessness and cruelty go unchecked in the lawlessness of the territory. It turns out that he is in cahoots with the Russian mob and is acting as their agent to track down Carlos and locate the drugs and money he was transporting.


In order to get what he wants, Ilya will stop at nothing. When his interrogation of Jesse comes up flat, he has no problem unleashing his thug of a partner on the naïve couple.

This film depicts one of the more graphic and detailed torture scenes to date. I have seen many films and endured some revolting cinema monents, but Transiberian takes it a step further because the person enduring it all is a woman. Films like Marathon Man, Payback Casino, Passion of the Christ and Syriana all show the brutal methods mankind has developed to procure information from people unwilling to give it.

But the unwritten rule of the theater is that woman are spared this kind of treatment. Not the case with this movie. Transiberian throws this thinking straight out the window as was evidenced by the groans and screams of shock that came from the audience in the crowded theater I sat in. Women get the brunt of the hideous treatment, and males and females alike may want to cover their eyes during certain parts.

Even with these stomach turning visuals, Transiberian is an intense and fierce thriller. It keeps you on the edge of your seat but the ending is a little too predictable. It engages the audience to a remarkable degree, but the letdowns are unfortunately more memorable as the credits roll.

Harrelson seems to be making a habit of playing “ho-hum” characters because he comes off as even more dense than “Woody,” the lovable bartender from Cheers. Manuel Noriega is the real scene stealer as Carlos. Though he is only in about two-thirds of the movie, his portrayal as a learned grifter is both believable and moving.


The real marvel of this film is the locations. While a majority of it is shot on the train, the bitter cold and endless beauty of Mongolia and Russia are on full display. There is also a heightened sense of realism as we can see the breaths of the actors as they walk along the train platforms and explore their surroundings. The story is certainly believable but the naïveté of Jesse and Roy make me wonder why more American are not murdered while on holiday.

The film closely resembles the 1978 classic Midnight Express for it’s heart-pounding look at drug running, and the madness that goes along with it.

Transiberian offers many morals, but the most important one to remember is, “Don’t make friends with strangers and always be on the lookout when travelling through foreign lands.” This is a warning that Jesse and Roy learn early in the film but it requires a certain turn of events and for their lives to be put in considerable danger for them to realize the severity of being strangers in a strange land.

Two and a half out of five stars.

Review of The Dark Knight

Note: There are spoilers in this entry so if you have not seen the film yet, and don’t want to have it ruined, scroll down or come back after you have seen it.

"And away we…. go."

I finally saw The Dark Knight. The Batman movies have always been a love of mine and the first feature length film that come out in 1988 turned me into a serious film buff. Though The Dark Knight opened 26 days ago, I waited because I had to see it on the IMAX and I had to have the best seat in the house. It’s worth the money and the wait to experience it on the biggest screen in town.

So with all that time, and of course, with all the hype leading up to the film’s release, I had very high expectations. Every critic I read wrote a love story for a review, and every friend and colleague that saw it gave it two enthusiastic thumbs up. I was delighted by all the fanfare and was frothing at the mouth for the fateful day when I would have my own turn to savor and take in the film that broke all the box office records and had the entire world asking the tag-line question, “Why so serious?”

And that’s exactly the point. The Dark Knight is as serious as it gets. It’s the most intense comic book rendering I have ever seen, and it’s laden with long speeches about morality, the struggle of good versus evil, human decency and of course, the dual nature of people.

It is a great movie, but I probably won’t be one of those reserving the four-disc DVD collection loaded with extras that will surely retail for $79.95 on HD DVD. I may or may not even see it again on the big screen. The Dark Knight is entertaining to the very end but I didn’t go bonkers for it like I did for the monumental action films of my adolescence, (i.e. Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and The Professional).

It has already captivated the nation, and I am sure it will inspire the next generation of filmmakers, but for me, it was just a summer blockbuster. I thought the marketing and viral advertising blitz was more impressive than the actual movie itself. I was thoroughly sucked in by the ad's declaring, "I believe in Harvey Dent!" and the bus stop posters showing a batman logo burned into a building.


I had heard that it was the best action film of all time and that all other Batman movies pale in comparison to the Christopher Nolan entries. I judge the Batman movies by each director and their two films, in this case Tim Burton, (Batman, Batman Returns) Joel Schumacher (Batman Forever, Batman and Robin) and Christopher Nolan, (Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight).

Nolan’s film is more of a crime drama than a superhero flick, and if you are looking for real crime dramas, I suggest William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in L.A., Sidney Lumet’s Night Falls on Manhattan or Michael Mann’s Heat.

Nolan’s films are definitely riveting and a much needed fresh prospective on probably the greatest film franchise of all time, but I still believe that the Michael Keaton films stand up better than the Christian Bale ones. Burton’s vision is more stylistic and holds more weight compared with Nolan, who I feel is a good director but can’t compete with the master visionary behind classics like Edward Scissorhands, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

As a whole, (and I know I am probably the minority opinion on this one) Burton’s two films are better that Nolan’s two films, but both these men make Joel Schumacher look like a child in a game of men.

While also incredibly dark and mysterious, Burton’s Batman films spare us the long and heavy speeches and the duality of man argument that seems ever present in Nolan’s work. It’s been done before in much better stories, and I think I will throw up if I have to hear the line again, “You either die a hero or you live long enough to become a villain.”


Burton won’t be making another Batman film again, and after the huge success of The Dark Knight, it’s pretty safe to assume that Nolan will have free reign to direct the next films and carefully mold his vision as to what he feels the Batman character is really all about. Nolan’s got no place to go but up, and with Johnny Depp rumored to appear as the Riddler in the next installation, he’ll be able to handpick the best actors and spend as much as he wants with bottomless studio budgets.

Nolan has said that he enjoys realism in his films. So I doubt we will ever see villains like Mr. Freeze, the Penguin or Killer Croc. The monsters that Batman has battled in his quest to keep Gotham City safe may never make an appearance on the screen with this director at the helm.


Unlike the millions of adoring new fans, I had a problem with some parts of the film. For one, the cell phone imaging technology that Luscious Fox, (Morgan Freeman’s character) develops to track down the Joker was a little confusing and even tougher to watch. The graphing sequences reminded me of the Disney film Tron and succeeded in giving me a headache.

I also had a problem with some of the fighting sequences. I love watching a guy decked out in black rubber ears kick some serious ass, but the movements and camerawork were too fast and all I could really make out in most cases was Batman walking towards a goon, and then the next shot is that same goon lying on the floor, screaming in pain.

One thing most people can agree on is Batman’s voice and how deep and incomprehensible it is. It was difficult to make out a single word he said. Alfred the butler, played by Michael Caine, was also tough on the ears. Not because of a raspiness but because of his cockney accent. I know he was speaking the King's English but there should have been subtitles on the screen whenever he uttered a word.

The supporting cast did a fantastic job. Eric Roberts plays the grease ball Mob boss Maroni and William Fichtner has a great cameo as a bank manager who decides to go vigilante on some would-be robbers. You can easily miss Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow, as he gets caught within the first 15 minutes. He stole the show in the first Nolan movie and will probably resurface again. But in this episode, much like the first, he is greatly underused.

Heath Ledger as the Joker does a remarkable job. He is every bit as crazy as I heard. He had some big shoes to fill considering Jack Nicholson’s no slouch and really gave the role its panache and grace roughly twenty years ago.


If I encountered Nicholson’s Joker, he would probably shoot me dead on the spot. But Ledger’s Joker is much more disturbing and would probably make me eat my own leg before killing me in the most grotesque manner he could dream up.

And it’s that crazy mind of his that makes him so lethal. Sure he has the physical strength to impale a henchman on a pencil, and he is the only guy I know of who can laugh at Batman while taking a beating, but the ease he displays in turning Gotham City upside down clearly shows his sick and calculating genius.

Ledger’s timing, expressions, and vulgarity all make him tremendously dangerous and enjoyable. He is one of the most lovable villains to hit the big screen since Hannibal Lector. Every lip smack, gesture and deadpan highlights the inner rage and madness within.

His entrances and exits are instant classics. My two favorites are when he leaves the hospital in the nurses uniform while struggling with the bomb detonator, but still with an awkward pep in his step, followed closely by when he crashes the Harvey Dent fundraiser thrown by Bruce Wayne. He shows us just how intent and determined he is at getting what he wants.


He’s as dangerous as they come because he is more of an urban terrorist than a comic book bad guy. The homemade videos he submits to the news outlets depicting his crimes and demands are reminiscent of the torture and ransom tapes that come out of the Middle East war zones. It's got a familiar feel to what we see everyday on CNN, or as the Joker might say, "It's all part of the plan."

His yearning to destroy Gotham city and pit its citizens against one another is far more believable than some cheesy nut, dressed flamboyantly who is bent on world domination. His scars, bombs and murders are all personal and it's obvious that he takes pleasure in being so bad.

I was annoyed when I first heard that a young Australian actor whose last major film role was getting down and dirty with a fellow cowboy on a mountain was given the part every actor would kill for. But Ledger hit a home run and the die-hard fans can now endlessly argue Nicholson’s claim to the title as the best Joker of all time.

This new Joker is evil to the core and his one liner’s are sure to be the thing of holiday cards and cocktail party quips. Whatever demons Ledger was fighting during the production and after were certainly present on the celluloid. The role called for a madman in the truest sense of the word and Ledger gave it to us, in style.

I hope he gets the Oscar nod as it would be a gallant tribute to a truly larger-than-life thespian that died way before his time.

I must give credit where credit is due. His scenes are the most enjoyable to watch, but I was flabbergasted when his character was not killed off. Usually a fiend half as ruthless as the Joker would be cut into a million different pieces by the end of the film but for some reason he supposedly lives on to battle his arch nemesis another day.


His living is a huge break from traditional film code. The decision by the film’s producers is confusing because Heath Ledger has died and it will be tough to reintroduce him again. But as my friend who saw the film with me mentioned, perhaps they have so much footage they can include it in another installment.

Even if they do that, it would be a disservice to Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight. He blew the performance out of the water and it should be contained to this film, and this film alone. Any attempt to recreate little bits and pieces of his character for the next episode are cheap and overly indulgent.

While certainly a slight improvement from Katie Holmes, Maggie Gyllenhaal wasn’t all that much better, and I was happy that she won’t be back for another film. I am glad her character was eliminated, and still question why Bruce Wayne would have a thing for a woman who looks like a hound dog, even if he did grow up with her. Katie Holmes can’t act her way out of a paper bag, but at least she is easy on the eyes.


Gyllenhaal plays the assistant District Attorney to Gotham City and the love interest of Harvey Dent. When she eats it, all kinds of chaos breaks out. Aaron Eckhart plays Dent and is the city’s “White Night” and white-collar savior.

Eckhart also gives a great performance and his death is sad because we only get a small taste of his treachery. After morphing into Two-Face, he creates a little turmoil, raises some hell, and takes out some of the city’s seedier characters - all stand up work in my book. But the rants about how unfair life is for him and how he can't recover from her loss are overly melodramatic and tiresome.


His make-up is amazing though. How the effects crew were able to transform a handsome man into such a hideous being, I will never know. I can only assume it was done with computer generated effects. However his death scene is terribly weak. It’s too bad that he dies and the Joker lives because Eckhart could certainly play the central villain in another movie. Again, what were the producers thinking?

Also worth mentioning is the role the city of Chicago plays as a stellar backdrop. Gotham City never had more life, carnage or flair. Nolan had the right idea to shoot in a true metropolis setting as opposed to a studio sound stage. The chase scene on lower Wacker drive is something to rival The French Connection and Bullitt. It’s also a thrill to see the Batcycle tear through Millennium Station as the lines that commuters walk down everyday eerily resemble starting spots on a racetrack.

The Loop is home to many of the best scenes, and it looks like the IBM building was used as the office for Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and for the press conference scene. But LaSalle avenue, by far the city’s most beautiful and historic thoroughfare is the setting for the real fireworks. The area by the Board of Trade serves as the setting for an assassination attempt on Gotham’s mayor and one of the showdowns between the Joker and Batman.

The stunts are top notch and I wouldn’t have believed half of them unless I had followed the film’s production as closely as I did. My company's offices were actually used by the production teams to light the sequences.


Probably the most exciting act in the story was the Hong Kong footage. Batman tests out his new Batsuit and extracts a criminal from a high-rise in one of the most daring escapes I have ever seen. The camera work makes you feel like you are gliding through the air along with the Caped Crusader and his prisoner. I had chills down my back while watching this and believed the film could only get better leading up to an even bigger finale. Unfortunately I was wrong.

As a whole, the movie is top notch and well worth the mass acclaim it has received. It will continue to amaze audiences filled with theater-goers who have seen it two and three times now.

I am just not one of those individuals with a Joker-like permanent grin on his face. What makes the film memorable for me is that there is no safety net. Nolan has proven that he can eliminate pivotal characters in the story to show what a dire and cut-throat society his Gotham City can be. There was a nervousness that overcame me when I realized anyone can die, at any time.

The storyline also mirrors certain Homeland Security issues that have riled up the ACLU and other anti "Big Brother" groups. It's easy to see why this film has struck such a nerve with the American movie-going public. Gotham City can be Any-Town U.S.A. The crime wave depicted is also reminiscent of the senseless violence and record murder rate that currently characterizes the Windy City.

Nolan ends the film with a cliffhanger; Batman running away from the very people he has sworn to protect. This conclusion of sorts is a nice touch because we have no idea what Batman will be like in the next movie and a sense of unknowing is the best way to captivate an audience.

Three out of five stars.