Snowpiercer

Lots of good action. Good story and plot. 8.0 out of 10. This is a really decent film. John Hurt is a acting machine lol he never stops.

The trailer for this really depicts quite a different film, so it's best avoided. You might be forgiven for thinking this is another silly Hollywood end-of-the-world movie. In some ways it is: it's about a global apocalypse, yes, and it's certainly got some eye-poppingly silly elements, but these are all delivered knowingly and with a good deal of panache.Effectively the film takes a standard American blockbuster setup and deliberately pushes the format beyond breaking point. While there are sci-fi elements, there is clearly no way the constructed world you are shown could work: even your most boring uncle won't be pointing out holes in the physics. As the viewer you are propelled into this weird non-reality and forced to accept it as it is served up, knowing that it doesn't hold together. This, coupled with a fantastic, high-contrast, Terry Gilliam-style hyper-reality, creates a half-dream / half-nightmare disorientation which brings you into the maelstrom with the heroes. Tilda Swinton, as the dictatorial "Mason", is the standout actor when it comes to the creation of this surreal backdrop.Looking at the reviews and ratings it's seemingly a very Marmite (or is that "Napoleon Dynamite"?) film. If you're not enjoying it by the time you reach the sushi scene, you're probably never going to change your mind. It's quite telling that the director had a well-publicised ding-dong with the studio boss, the infamous Harvey Weinstein, which resulted in the film being given a minimal release. It's certainly not to everyone's tastes, but it would have been interesting to see how it would have fared if it had been given the top-tier studio push.

Coming from a perspective of watching the Netflix show first, I had the back knowledge of the societal imbalance and the events that lead to this train being the last salvation of hope. But I was surprised with the difference it had in between the two shows.But if you've watched the end, here's a small likely spoiler, "And the bear ate them all...". They do look cuddly but they are vicious! I'm sure with the global food shortage, that bear will be happy to dig in.Anyway some differences was that the train itself isn't as big, though it showed multiple compartments, it really felt like a short train, they made to A to B fairly simply. And the main difference is the severity of the weather, it's a LOT warmer in this series. People shooting out of windows?? An Arm taking more than 70 seconds to freeze?? You'd never see this in the other show. It's like being outer space!The action scenes were pretty intense, these people were desperate and they showed. The cruel hand of the authoritarians were well portrayed, and as Wilford puts it, everyone is a bit insane to survive on this train. Which rung incredibly true.My pet peeves were:- The Korean dude's big plan. He wanted to go out. But then what? Any destination in mind? You'll have to blow up ideally not next to a mountain cliff for higher survival rates. What will you do for food? Vegetation doesn't grow outdoors. He had a plan, he gathered the flammable stuff, he got a coat, what was he thinking? I can only attribute it to this insanity clause of being cooped up in the train for nearly 2 decades (or the sleeper cell) and taking the odd drug.- Wilford's big plan. Let Curtis take the lead cause he's getting old... Thinning population to make it more managable. Coming up with secret -choke hazard- messages, despite being able to have a phone call to Gillian lol. This whole ruse was a bit farfetched. The end-game was confusing, pass the torch sure, but eliminate 74%? They were fine for 17 years, now they want to introduce a cull? "Let 18 survive to celebrate the 18th Anniversary!" - So much for this precise number of 74% as there were hundreds of them in the tail. A very weird piece of dialogue!- Curtis choking up when he finds out how the protein blocks are made. Come on man, you've cannibilised infants.... I think that's far more disgusting than discovering how gelatin is created.- How did the girl know there were children working underneath the floorboards..? Actually her ability to detect people behind walls was just odd too. Super hearing? I wish Curtis would have used numerous utensils to stop the gears from turning rather than his arm. Pretty sure that lady was carrying a rifle in the same room and left it.I applaud the film for it's diverse cast though, this is meant to represent humanity after all, so they did do an alright job there. The ending didn't really satisfy me because of everyone's strange motives, as expected it all went to ruin. And chances are, any remaining survivors won't survive. Netflix is the way to go for this cold barren universe, excellent story telling there.

PLOT...Set in 2031, the entire world is frozen and dead after a failed climate-change experiment except for those aboard the Snowpiercer. For 17 years, the world's survivors are on a train hurtling around the globe creating their own economy and class system. Led by Curtis, a group of lower-class citizens living in squalor at the back of the train are determined to get to the front of the train and spread the wealth around. Each section of the train holds new surprises for the group who have to battle their way through.This is indeed a very original and visually awesome looking sci-fi, certainly as others have said this is probably one of the best films you have never seen or heard of, an interesting and completely bonkers idea for a story, the movie is rather a good budget with fantastic effects and stunning scenery and set designs, each section of the train is strange and bizarre in many different ways, the cast all round is brilliant, Chris Evans is a good lead, we also have John Hurt and Ed Harris, many known faces, Tilda Swinton deserves much credit in this as she is rather creepy and yet very entertaining, the director of this movie is Joon-ho Bong, a Korean director who made the cool monster movie The Host back in 2006, I think this is an amazing English language movie that still has the feel of his previous movies, the movie for most part is entirely in English apart from the part of Korean actor Kang-ho Song (also from The Host 2006) if you love original sci-fi with a great visual style then look no further than to check out this little unknown gem, it may have a few plot holes here and there that you could possibly pick at but don't, its an amazing piece of cinema!! The film does have an R-rating as it is very violent in places too!!Blu-ray quality is very good in 1080p HD (Italian 2-disc import, Koch Media)Language is in full English, Italian subs can be removed from the movie,(The occasional Korean dialogue in movie has no English subs but its not hard to follow)Special features are plentiful indeed spread over 2-discs, TV spot and trailer, promo spot, various making of the movie features, plus much more,(Some of the features are in English, some are Italian with no English subs,Region B so plays in the UK, 126-mins long, 2012.