Trying to be what it's not

Rating: 5/10 (9 June 2011)

This movie wants to take you on a ride, it wants to take you back to a time and a place where the world was that little more innocent.
This movie wants your heart to skip a beat when danger is near, and wants you to lose your breath when the heroes are in peril.
This movie wants to be a lot of things, but ultimately there's just something missing. You feel like a spectator just waiting to get involved, but as the movie creeps along and goes through the motions you begin to realize that the sidelines are as close as you're going to get.
There's virtually no back story to what's on board the train and when do finally learn more about it it's then too late to care. The father and son have both been impacted by a traumatic and life-changing event, but aside from a few passing encounters we don't ever really feel their pain.
There are some moments in the movie that stir something deeper down, but they're over almost as quickly as they begun and you're back to the bleachers watching a fairly boring, simple story unfold.
I think what is at fault here is the plot - it's seemingly non-existent. The director has taken a bunch of things that on their own sound like a great recipe, but some vital magic got missed from the mix and it just never comes together like it should.