One of the best films i have seen

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

A Major Disappointment

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Ex-DEA agent Paul Blake sets out from Miami to Sydney to track down a criminal he has a vendetta with. Meanwhile the EDL (Earth Defence League) carry out a raid on a chemical bunker in the Australian desert to make money and draw attention to the harm done to the earth, however the idealistic Eve Lambert doesn't realise that the "team" that is assisting with her work is none other than the associates of Larkin, the very man that Drake is hunting. Having spent about 15 minutes wandering around Sydney looking in corners, Drake spots Larkin boarding a train having carried out the EDL job. He follows them onto the train, meeting the sexy Rhonda at the same time however, when the Government try to stop the train Larkin's men take over, leaving Drake the only man able to stop him.I might say negative things about this film but please bare in mind that I chose, of my own freewill, to watch a film with Antonio Sabato Jnr and Kimberley Davis in the title roles. Regardless of this I tuned in to find a film that took about 15 minutes to actually set up the basic story (and does it in a pretty poor way) and by the time everyone had gotten onto the train I had gotten the gist that this was basically a version of Under Siege 2 and managed to make me realise just how much fun that film is. With a "by the numbers" plot involving nerve gas, things did not look good and, sure enough, things never got above the predictable and the obvious. This leaves the fight scenes and action to really involve and, while it isn't really bad, it certainly never gets above the average and more often than not is actually around the mediocre. Every now and again people get shot, punched or thrown out of trains; it is all done without any real style or imagination and the sheer blandness of the action just sucks any remaining tension out for good.There are people on this earth do think that the Van Damme's of this world are perhaps poor action actors but to them I simply say "you have not seen enough Antonio Sabato Jr films" because, if they had, they would hold Van Damme in higher stead. Here he is roundly poor – he has no screen presence, doesn't move that well, has poor chemistry with his co-star and, dammit, just looks plain weird. Of course he hardly risks being outperformed by Davies who is just a typical simmering blonde who doesn't even get that much screen time and barely looks mussed up at any point. Beahan is a bit annoying but, as with so many of these things, the bad guy dominates the film. This is not to say that Ehlers has a lot of competition but he does seem to be having fun even if his performance is just a poor carbon copy of much better ones.Overall this is a pretty poor film but might just about do very undemanding genre fans who find themselves stuck with nothing better to do/watch. However with so many "Die Hard in a….." type movies around you do have to wonder whether or not we really needed another one added to the pile? On the basis of the mediocre action, bad acting, predictable plotting and total lack of excitement or tension here, the most obvious answer is no.

SECONDS TO SPARE Aspect ratio: 1.78:1Sound format: StereoAfter serving time in prison on a trumped-up charge of corruption, an ex-DEA officer (Antonio Sabato Jr.) travels to Australia in search of the man responsible for his ordeal (Jerome Ehlers), a rogue CIA agent who has hijacked a passenger train and is threatening to detonate a nerve bomb in the heart of Sydney...Antonio Sabato Jr. is the perfect action hero: He's dark and handsome, and he can kick butt with the best of 'em. The only 'trouble' is his chest - he's got the best pecs in the business, and his costume designer knows it. When he wears a tight-fitting T-shirt (as he does frequently throughout this opportunistic mini-epic), or - better still - when he isn't wearing a shirt at all (there's only one gratuitous 'topless' scene, but welcome nonetheless!), some viewers will be hopelessly distracted by the size, shape and all-round magnificence of those plate-sized pectorals. Thankfully, Sabato wears another (loose fitting) shirt just long enough for Brian Trenchard-Smith's ho-hum actioner to emerge into some kind of focus, and while there's nothing new in either the script (by Trenchard-Smith and Dennis Pratt) or direction, the movie contains enough explosions and punch-ups to satisfy the target audience. Former soap star Kimberley Davies (sporting a rather magnificent chest of her own!) is Sabato's potential love interest, prone to falling into the wrong hands and being rescued by her hunky would-be boyfriend, while Kate Beahan suffers gracefully as Ehler's naive associate, a good-hearted soul who realizes - too late! - the hijack will end in disaster for millions of innocent people. Professional in all departments, the movie is no more than a routine time-waster, but Sabato's pumped-up torso is worth endless repeat viewings. Drool, slobber...

Basically what we have here is a bargain basement action thriller set mainly on a train and utilising numerous bits of other film's scripts (spot the photocopied plots from Under Siege 2, Death Train and numerous others here).Add every cliché in the book, some truly awful acting, standard issue one liners that don't work, various cardboard characters, the token eye candy and a cast that seemed to be only in this as they desperately needed the money to a budget of about ten dollars and this is the mess you wind up with.The locomotives acted better than the cast, probably because they did not have to recite the cheesy clichéd dialogue that basically ran from start to finish, it is little wonder that one comment from an Australian (where this Antipodean codswallop was made and is set) wanted to hang his head in shame that they where producing stuff like this.Stick to Mad Max films please.......

The only thing worth watching about this movie is Kimberley Davies, and that's just looking at her, not her acting (she can't act - but then again, that only puts her on par with the rest of the cast of this shocker).Mmm. Should have given it 1/10 instead of 2. Certainly the special effects aren't even worth that.Read a good book, watch something else, eg. flies crawling up the wall, or maybe grass growing, or photos of Kimberley, or some of the wonderful non-action-genre movies that have come out of Australia in the last twenty years.One day Australians will realise that they make great intelligent movies without trying to match Hollywood for action blockbusters which they will never be able to do. Until then we are stuck with these occasional misguided unsuccessful forays.Contemplating this movie's showing on overseas TV networks makes me cringe as an Australian.Don't bother with this one.