Most likely the worst Van Damme movie ever!
Added 1/31/2010
I don't know what impelled JC Van Damme to make this movie because its such a low standard performance from virtually everyone involved.
While I haven't see all of his movies, I've seen most of them and that's why this is such a disappointment. I mean, movies like Time Cop, Universal Soldier, Sudden Death or Hard Targets, were all great and absolutely watchable action flicks but Derailed has nothing even remotely watchable in comparison.
I think we can all agree that a good movie consists of the following elements: a good preferably exciting story, good to excellent acting, and if necessary great action and special effects scenes. Yet, Derail has not a single one of those necessary elements in it!
First of all, there is the story, or rather what is being called a story. It is so riddled with down right rediculous plot holes that it makes you wonder how a straight thinking person could come up with something this unbelievable. Then there's the acting, or shall we say earnest attempts at acting. Honestly, I've never seen JC Van Damme so uninspired in terms of acting, but unfortunately the rest of the crew seemed to feel right at home with this lame performance and join the protagonist in what can only be called substandard acting. Then finally, there are the so-called special effects, which are simply laughable. I mean, who are they trying to kid with these cheapo effects. The train on which most of the movie takes place is for example a toy train when viewed from above and the helicopters are also cheap models. Really, this should be way below Van Damme's dignity to pass off such cheap scenes for action that is supposed to rescue a sinking ship.
If you want to see a good to great action movie that is taking place on a train go for Steven Segal's Undersiege 2, there he shows what a great train action movie has to look like.
So drop this from you shopping list, if you ever had it on it. There are so many better films by Van Damme, virtually all of them beat this one by light years. This must be his worst movie, ever.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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"[Screw] you! I'm getting off!"
Added 11/29/2009
Since beginning his career in direct-to-video cinema, Jean-Claude Van Damme has been remarkably aware of how important it was for his movies to keep from blending in with the crowd of countless other DTV flicks; this willingness to try for originality gave rise to several better-than-average low-budgeteers like Replicant, In Hell, and JCVD, and has generally given Van Damme fans more to celebrate than those of, say, Steven Seagal or Dolph Lundgren. "Derailed", however, has the dubious honor of fulfilling our hero's quota of having at least one universally uninteresting, poorly-made film for fans, casual viewers, and critics to bash the snot out of. The premise of "Die Hard on a train" has been done before and done better, so if you're in it for the theme, go watch "Under Siege 2"; if you're just watching it for the leading man, you're going to have to be a lot more tolerant than me to enjoy what feels like Van Damme's first mail-in movie.
The story: NATO operative Jacques Kristoff (Van Damme) is sent abroad to escort a crafty secret agent (Laura Harring, Mulholland Drive) via train across Europe so she may deliver a top-secret biological weapon. When the train is hijacked by a group of terrorists (led by Tomas Arana, "Gladiator") and the virus is released, Kristoff must race against time to take out the bad guys in time to save the passengers and stop a deadly railway collision.
Let me start off by saying that there is no actual train in the movie - only models, like the kind your father or grandfather may have collected. The behind-the-scenes featurette gives the impression that a lot of effort went into constructing these, but on-screen, they represent the entire film by looking cheap. So does the pardon-the-budget CGI. So does the majority of the supporting cast: a collection of underpaid, accented internationals whose casting qualification was being able to look menacing or frightened; the highlight of this collection is Van Damme's real-life son Kristopher getting to throw a few karate kicks of his own. He outdoes his old man by doing this, for the fight scenes are collectively poor: even though Van Damme gets to duke it out with real-life vale tudo champion Stefanos Miltsakakis (Bloodsport 4: The Dark Kumite), the film's fight director seemed to favor jujitsu, so the fisticuffs involve a lot of rolling around and not a lot of kicking or anything else remotely interesting (although there is a cool scene where Van Damme nonchalantly picks up a bad guy and drops him into the train's engine housing).
Director Bob Misiorowski's resume includes mainly bad TV films like Shark Attack, and the production of "Derailed" looks the same: you can tell from the first set of titles that this movie has been made with limited know-how and imagination, so prepare yourself for some weirdo editing techniques and convenient reality snafus for the sake of story progression (e.g. a henchwoman remains oblivious while Van Damme is beating up her buddy right behind her back because...well, I don't know why, seeing as her attention was only mildly diverted and Van Damme was making a lot of noise). Potentially cool things like Van Damme riding a motorbike atop the moving train are ruined by how inefficiently the editing department worked it together, and, in the end, it's difficult to care for the poorly-conceived characters; were it not for the wonder of IMDb, I wouldn't even remember their names.
Following "Derailed", JCVD went back to making films ranging in quality between pretty good and watchable. Fans ought to count their blessings that they've only got this film to contend with when it comes to blatantly bad vehicles for their hero, and put it completely out of their minds. Newcomers, stay away. Stay far away. Pretend you don't even know this one exists - you'll save two hours of your life.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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ENTERTAINING MOVIE
Added 7/23/2008
DERAILED
I have always been a huge fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme; in fact I own every one of his films. So the other day I said to my self I should watch one of his films I hadn't seen in a while, "Derailed" was the one I went with. It was a wise choice because this is a very entreating movie, much better then I remembered. I still don't know which I think is better, this film with Van Damme or "Under Siege 2" with Steven Seagal which was also on a train.
The story is about Jacques Kristoff who is hired to escort a woman named Galina Konstantin onto a train and get her across the border. Of course it wasn't that easy since she is carrying a bio weapon on board and some terrorists are after it. Of course in true Van Damme fashion he fights them all on board a speeding train. And to make things worse his family is on board and the virus breaks loose on all the passengers.
Writer's Adam Gierasch, Jace Anderson, and writer producer Boaz Davidson have created a pretty good movie with plenty of action. Under the direction of Bob Misiorowski this film is actually a really good film, even my grandmother liked it. Also along side Boaz Davidson there is seven other producers including Avi Lerner, that is a lot of people producing one film. Of course what sets this apart from other similar films is Van Damme and his style of action, which is excellent and exciting. And of course Van Damme's performance is great as is the rest of the cast. Laura Harring does a good job as Galina who has the virus, and Tomas Arana as Mason Cole is excellent as the lead villain in this film. The rest of the cast is just as good, all the bad guys Van Damme's family [including real life son], and train passengers are amazing in their supporting roles.
This is a very good movie for a boring day at home when you just want to relax. This isn't the best Van Damme film ever but it isn't the worst either. I recommend this film to any body reading this.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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very entertaining for low budget movie
Added 9/26/2006
well for its budget this movie is very entertaining and a lot of action has some good fighting van damme is good lots of fun.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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How bad can things get ?
Added 12/20/2005
I dont normally slate films but this one was asking for it so bad.
OMG- It saddens me to think the director got paid for this.
Please someone- write & direct a good film for Van Damme- he deserves better than this...
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Most likely the worst Van Damme movie ever!
Added 1/31/2010
I don't know what impelled JC Van Damme to make this movie because its such a low standard performance from virtually everyone involved.
While I haven't see all of his movies, I've seen most of them and that's why this is such a disappointment. I mean, movies like Time Cop, Universal Soldier, Sudden Death or Hard Targets, were all great and absolutely watchable action flicks but Derailed has nothing even remotely watchable in comparison.
I think we can all agree that a good movie consists of the following elements: a good preferably exciting story, good to excellent acting, and if necessary great action and special effects scenes. Yet, Derail has not a single one of those necessary elements in it!
First of all, there is the story, or rather what is being called a story. It is so riddled with down right rediculous plot holes that it makes you wonder how a straight thinking person could come up with something this unbelievable. Then there's the acting, or shall we say earnest attempts at acting. Honestly, I've never seen JC Van Damme so uninspired in terms of acting, but unfortunately the rest of the crew seemed to feel right at home with this lame performance and join the protagonist in what can only be called substandard acting. Then finally, there are the so-called special effects, which are simply laughable. I mean, who are they trying to kid with these cheapo effects. The train on which most of the movie takes place is for example a toy train when viewed from above and the helicopters are also cheap models. Really, this should be way below Van Damme's dignity to pass off such cheap scenes for action that is supposed to rescue a sinking ship.
If you want to see a good to great action movie that is taking place on a train go for Steven Segal's Undersiege 2, there he shows what a great train action movie has to look like.
So drop this from you shopping list, if you ever had it on it. There are so many better films by Van Damme, virtually all of them beat this one by light years. This must be his worst movie, ever.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
"[Screw] you! I'm getting off!"
Added 11/29/2009
Since beginning his career in direct-to-video cinema, Jean-Claude Van Damme has been remarkably aware of how important it was for his movies to keep from blending in with the crowd of countless other DTV flicks; this willingness to try for originality gave rise to several better-than-average low-budgeteers like Replicant, In Hell, and JCVD, and has generally given Van Damme fans more to celebrate than those of, say, Steven Seagal or Dolph Lundgren. "Derailed", however, has the dubious honor of fulfilling our hero's quota of having at least one universally uninteresting, poorly-made film for fans, casual viewers, and critics to bash the snot out of. The premise of "Die Hard on a train" has been done before and done better, so if you're in it for the theme, go watch "Under Siege 2"; if you're just watching it for the leading man, you're going to have to be a lot more tolerant than me to enjoy what feels like Van Damme's first mail-in movie.
The story: NATO operative Jacques Kristoff (Van Damme) is sent abroad to escort a crafty secret agent (Laura Harring, Mulholland Drive) via train across Europe so she may deliver a top-secret biological weapon. When the train is hijacked by a group of terrorists (led by Tomas Arana, "Gladiator") and the virus is released, Kristoff must race against time to take out the bad guys in time to save the passengers and stop a deadly railway collision.
Let me start off by saying that there is no actual train in the movie - only models, like the kind your father or grandfather may have collected. The behind-the-scenes featurette gives the impression that a lot of effort went into constructing these, but on-screen, they represent the entire film by looking cheap. So does the pardon-the-budget CGI. So does the majority of the supporting cast: a collection of underpaid, accented internationals whose casting qualification was being able to look menacing or frightened; the highlight of this collection is Van Damme's real-life son Kristopher getting to throw a few karate kicks of his own. He outdoes his old man by doing this, for the fight scenes are collectively poor: even though Van Damme gets to duke it out with real-life vale tudo champion Stefanos Miltsakakis (Bloodsport 4: The Dark Kumite), the film's fight director seemed to favor jujitsu, so the fisticuffs involve a lot of rolling around and not a lot of kicking or anything else remotely interesting (although there is a cool scene where Van Damme nonchalantly picks up a bad guy and drops him into the train's engine housing).
Director Bob Misiorowski's resume includes mainly bad TV films like Shark Attack, and the production of "Derailed" looks the same: you can tell from the first set of titles that this movie has been made with limited know-how and imagination, so prepare yourself for some weirdo editing techniques and convenient reality snafus for the sake of story progression (e.g. a henchwoman remains oblivious while Van Damme is beating up her buddy right behind her back because...well, I don't know why, seeing as her attention was only mildly diverted and Van Damme was making a lot of noise). Potentially cool things like Van Damme riding a motorbike atop the moving train are ruined by how inefficiently the editing department worked it together, and, in the end, it's difficult to care for the poorly-conceived characters; were it not for the wonder of IMDb, I wouldn't even remember their names.
Following "Derailed", JCVD went back to making films ranging in quality between pretty good and watchable. Fans ought to count their blessings that they've only got this film to contend with when it comes to blatantly bad vehicles for their hero, and put it completely out of their minds. Newcomers, stay away. Stay far away. Pretend you don't even know this one exists - you'll save two hours of your life.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
ENTERTAINING MOVIE
Added 7/23/2008
DERAILED
I have always been a huge fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme; in fact I own every one of his films. So the other day I said to my self I should watch one of his films I hadn't seen in a while, "Derailed" was the one I went with. It was a wise choice because this is a very entreating movie, much better then I remembered. I still don't know which I think is better, this film with Van Damme or "Under Siege 2" with Steven Seagal which was also on a train.
The story is about Jacques Kristoff who is hired to escort a woman named Galina Konstantin onto a train and get her across the border. Of course it wasn't that easy since she is carrying a bio weapon on board and some terrorists are after it. Of course in true Van Damme fashion he fights them all on board a speeding train. And to make things worse his family is on board and the virus breaks loose on all the passengers.
Writer's Adam Gierasch, Jace Anderson, and writer producer Boaz Davidson have created a pretty good movie with plenty of action. Under the direction of Bob Misiorowski this film is actually a really good film, even my grandmother liked it. Also along side Boaz Davidson there is seven other producers including Avi Lerner, that is a lot of people producing one film. Of course what sets this apart from other similar films is Van Damme and his style of action, which is excellent and exciting. And of course Van Damme's performance is great as is the rest of the cast. Laura Harring does a good job as Galina who has the virus, and Tomas Arana as Mason Cole is excellent as the lead villain in this film. The rest of the cast is just as good, all the bad guys Van Damme's family [including real life son], and train passengers are amazing in their supporting roles.
This is a very good movie for a boring day at home when you just want to relax. This isn't the best Van Damme film ever but it isn't the worst either. I recommend this film to any body reading this.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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