Night Train Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Night Train Blu-ray Movie Review

“All a-bored!”

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater June 27, 2009

There have been a number of great films set on trains—Strangers on a Train, Man on the Train, heck, even Throw Momma From the Train—but Night Train, written and directed by M. Brian King, unfortunately belongs to a lesser league of cinematic track-jumpers, joining the derailed likes of Terror Train and The Midnight Meat Train. I’m sure you’re sensing a pattern here, and no, I can’t fathom either why locomotive films feel the need to so blatantly announce their frankly antiquated settings. Thank God The Darjeeling Limited and Transsiberian mix it up a bit. Titles aside, it’s easy to see why trains work so well as a storytelling device. There’s claustrophobia involved, characters—often strangers—are forced together in unnatural ways, and trains are always speeding down the tracks, giving even the most lifeless films an ever-present sense of movement. This doesn’t prove enough for Night Train, however, as the film decouples from what starts as a strong narrative engine and rapidly loses momentum.

Get on the night train...and ride it.

It’s Christmas Eve, and The Nightingale—a Night Train, get it—is low on passengers. Peter Dobbs (Rescue Dawn’s Steve Zahn) is an alcoholic businessman—what other kind is there in movies of this ilk—heading home in an eggnog-induced stupor. Sitting nearby, med student Chloe White (Leelee Sobieski) flips idly through an anatomy textbook, eager for winter vacation. Conductor Miles (Danny Glover) settles in for a sleepy run, his mind on his hospital- bound wife. At the next stop, a man boards the train with a gift under his arm. He’s pale, sickly, popping pills like they were breath mints. Peter, feeling festive, offers the man a swig of Kalashnikov vodka. After this merry nightcap, the man tilts his head back, puts his hat over his face, and promptly dies, a thin gruel of spittle running down his chin. Of course, the man’s gift gets opened—who could resist—and the three strangers discover a wooden puzzle box filled with priceless contents.

Night Train wears its Hitchcock inspiration like an honor badge, and what would a classic Hitchcockian film be without the maestro’s famous “MacGuffin,” an object that serves to advance the plot and motivate the characters. The dead man’s box fills that role here, and becomes the inspiration for all manner of scheming, lust, and greed. I’m not going to spoil it—really though, there’s not much to spoil—but there’s a hefty supernatural element to the plot. Suffice it to say, the box could’ve very well belonged to Pandora. There’s in interesting premise in here somewhere, but the trouble is, the mystery surrounding the box is thin and unbelievable. A richer back-story could’ve lent the film some “okay, I’ll buy it” suspension of disbelief, but as it stands, Night Train is as limp as a wet shoestring.

Thin, then, is a good way to describe the film, as its budget, unconvincing set design, and plot could all use some creative thickening. There were several eye-rolling moments where I simply couldn’t accept the characters’ actions. Chloe is a med student, so of course she’s capable of chopping up a body with a meat cleaver and stuffing the pieces in a trunk. Of course the detective that’s investigating the body ignores Chloe and Miles as they talk conspiratorially less than eight feet away. Some of the auxiliary characters, the igo-playing Japanese men and the frumpy old cross-dresser (Richard O’Brien—Riff Raff from Rocky Horror) in particular, seem like a desperate bid to give Night Train some Lynchian, Twin Peaks-style kookiness, only here it comes off as shallow and laughable. If the film had dispensed with the little stabs at humor and taken a more realistic tone, it might be easier for audiences to choke down the supernatural horse-pill they’re being asked to swallow.

Night Train Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Night Train's AVC-encoded, 1080p* transfer suffers the fates shared by many films shot on HD video—poor contrast, digital noise, and a lack of depth. It certainly doesn't help that the film's lighting is bland and flat, giving Night Train a cheap, unconvincing appearance. Color issues crop up here and there, especially in skin tones, and one close-up of Steve Zahn, in particular, his skin almost whitish and lips nearly magenta, made me wince audibly. Black levels are acceptable, although the texture of Chloe's sweater and black knit cap—she looks like a cat burglar for nearly the entire film—is regularly crushed to oblivion. The train's exteriors, in movement shots anyway, are all CGI and look no better than your average pre-rendered videogame cut scene. Snowflakes were also obviously added in post, apparently because the snow-blowing machine was too loud to use on set and still capture dialogue. Though it's relatively sharp and doesn't suffer from any monumental banding or edge-enhancement issues, I found very little to like about Night Train's uninspired look.

*Do note that while the back of the case says 1080i, this release is indeed 1080p.

Night Train Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Night Train's DTS-HD MA 5.1 track also shows its low-budget pedigree, particularly on the vocal front. Male voices sound muffled, compressed, and occasionally lost in the helter-skelter mix of score and ambience. Directionality is inconsistent; sometimes we hear train wheels and other sounds rattling in the rear channels, sometimes we don't. If there's one plus to this track it's Henning Lohner's score, which, with its deep symphonic strings and tinkling xylophone, could easily belong in a better film. All in all, Night Train's audio performance is flat and forgettable.

Night Train Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

"Making Of" Featurette (SD, 22:55)

Is there any reason why "Making Of" is in quotation marks? Is this ironically not a standard, poorly produced behind the scenes special? Unfortunately, this is exactly what it is, and you know you're in for a treat when a disclaimer before the supplement reads, "The special features included on this DVD reflect the quality of the original source material." "Making Of" includes interviews with the director and the producers, one of which has the gall to compare Night Train to The Maltese Falcon. Worth skipping.

Cast and Crew Interviews (SD, 28:13)

This section includes interviews with Danny Glover, Steve Zahn, Leelee Sobieski, Richard O'Brien, director M. Brian King, special effects chief Elvis Jones, and producers Michael Philip, Jo Marr, and Arnold Rifkin. The interview responses are abruptly cut with a black screen and a loud audio pop, and combined with the poorly recorded voices, this segment is quite difficult to sit through.

Photo Gallery (1080i, 2:11)

Trailer (SD, 2:11)

Night Train Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Steve Zahn was brilliant in Rescue Dawn, Leelee Sobieski was in Eyes Wide Shut, for goodness' sake, and Danny Glover, well, he's Danny freaking Glover. Why are these people in Night Train? I don't mean to give the film a hard shake—it has some interesting ideas that fall unfortunately onto the tracks—but I can't recommend Night Train to anyone besides locomotive completists who need fill that gap on their media shelf between The Polar Express and Snakes on a Train.