While the linked topic has been closed and to further discuss points raised therein would be out of order, allow me to note that the subject film "Abduction" is opening Friday Sep 23 "at a theater near you".
It will be interesting to see if recognized newssources such as The Times, Journal, or my Illini classmate Roger Ebert bother to review it; let alone the "bubbly little" Local NBC entertainment reporter, Lee Ann Trotter.
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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I finally saw a preview for it on TV. The plot of the movie is something I would normally enjoy, but it looked a little bit too teeny-bopper for my tastes. I did see one brief clip where they showed the interior of what allegedly is a Superliner bedroom, but it's obviously a stage on a studio lot somewhere. They used the real exterior of a Superliner in the preview that I saw, but the interior was nothing close to what AmTravelers are used to. Sorta like with "Under Siege 2: Dark Territory". I think it was only the lounge car that was "real"---the rest of the interior shots were phony baloney.
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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Quote: "This movie continues a trend in modern CSI-CIA-crime writing; a lack of understanding of the basic principles of technology and I guess it won't bother most people but for me the whole plot seemed rather forced."
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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Here is a review by "Rotten Tomatos". I don't believe I have every seen them give any film a "0" rating (out of a possible "100"). I think "Atlas Shrugged" even got a "9".
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Wow, that's pretty bad. I just saw a movie yesterday that was absolutely fantastic: "The Debt". Not train related in any way (although they do ride old European light rail vehicles several times in the movie). But it is out of this world fantastic. Slow moving, and the first half hour makes no sense at all. But as the movie goes on and the pieces start to fit together, WOW. I loved it.
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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The brief passage to which GBN refers didn't show up in the message (unless it *is* "two stars"), so here it is (of course I am guessing):
"A sequence on an Amtrak train is particularly bewildering and illustrative of the film's madness: Nathan and Karen mack for a while before they both declare how hungry they are. Karen ducks down to the snack car, considering a chocolate bar while saying - OUT LOUD - "Hmm, he might like that". A Bad Dude shows up and starts to beat her up, but not before pausing to wipe his nose. Nathan saves the day by beating the Bad Dude up and throwing him out the window, where he rolls the wrong way for the direction the train is travelling."
Can we spell "c-o-n-t-i-n-u-i-t-y"?
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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“You will then be responsible for the death of all your friends ... on Facebook,” the archvillain (Michael Nyqvist) of the risible thriller “Abduction” warns the baby-faced Nathan Harper (Taylor Lautner), a sort of teenage Jason Bourne in search of his true identity. Did I say risible? At the screening I attended, that threat prompted hoots of derisive laughter, as did other howlers, including, “I’m not dying here; there’s a bomb in the oven.”
A joke? Oh, if only
The Journal can't be bothered; choosing to allocate their movie review column inches to possible Oscar contender "Moneyball". Gotta wait for the "News at Five" to see if Lee Ann will "bubble' away about this production.
Finally, why strong supporting actors such as Sigourney Weaver ("Aliens", "Working Girl"), who has played many a "strong woman" role during her career, would go near something like this escapes me (same equally applicable with Albert Molina - L&O/LA). But alas, just like everybody else, actors have bills to pay.
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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"I can’t recall another teenage star so opaque. If his physiognomy — recessed eyes that don’t seem to focus, a wide snub nose and Elvis-y lips — conjure Neanderthal manhood after a cosmetic makeover, his boyish monotone with its utter lack of inflection suggests that he is really an advanced robot simulating human speech without registering emotion or even comprehension."
Hoo boy.
Come to think of it, maybe Amtrak marketing knew what it was doing when it OKd the product placement in this movie: nobody could take those risible (love that word!) train crash scenes seriously.
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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Can "The Real Zephyrettes" be far behind? Or perhaps "Julie's Angels", based loosely on the Steven Seagal classic "Under Siege II", where the train attendants are actually a Charlie's Angels style team foiling a plot reprogram satellites from a moving (sometimes, if it's the CZ) train. A chase scene through the Moffat Tunnel and down the hairpin turns into Denver would be nice.
Posts: 1572 | From: St. Paul, MN | Registered: Dec 2002
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Love "Julie's Angels" and the "sometime moving Zephyr".
The LA Times was kinder to this movie, never mentioned the train stuff. Just burbled about the young star's abs. I like abs, maybe I need to see this film.
-------------------- Vicki in usually sunny Southern California Posts: 951 | From: Redondo Beach, CA | Registered: Aug 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Henry Kisor: ....nobody could take those risible (love that word!) train crash scenes seriously.
I had to look that one up. I have never heard of that word before. I'll have to remember that for the future.
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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Wonder which one of us will call the other "risible" next time we have a political argument?
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
I saw Abduction yesterday, and I'll be posting a full review of its presentation of Amtrak in a new thread. For the moment, though, a few comments on some of the preceding postings in this thread:
smitty195: It appears to me that the two or three faux Superliner bedrooms seen in the film (the one that Nathan and Karen are booked into, a second one adjoining it that Nathan and Kozlow's henchman burst into during their fight, and a hypothetical third one where Karen is at one point bound and gagged, though that scene was probably just filmed in one of the aforementioned two) are not in fact a studio set, but something assembled inside a midcentury car shell that could actually move, probably the shell of one of the three Phase IV-paint-scheme single-level Heritage cars that are seen in exterior shots being pulled by a Phase V-paint-scheme Genesis locomotive. In the moving-train scenes, the view out the train window is too realistic to have been faked; likewise the detailed interplay of light between the outside environment on the one hand and the window glass, the window frame, and the bedroom interiors on the other. I say "midcentury car" because the window frame construction is noticeably midcentury, clashing with the late-twentieth-century construction style of the rest of the bedroom. Although the faux bedrooms have low ceilings with a correspondingly low curved outside edge, like those of the upper-level interior spaces of a real Superliner car, I suspect that those were details simply copied from real Superliner interiors for their own sake, not features actually necessitated by the size and shape of the car shells in which the faux bedrooms were assembled, unless by some slight chance they were assembled not inside one of the three aforementioned Heritage cars but inside a moveable Superliner or Hi-Level car shell.
Also, your impression that Superliner exteriors are seen in one of Abduction's previews is incorrect, as a careful look at one of those previews on line will confirm. All that's seen in the previews, and in the film, is the Genesis locomotive and the three Heritage cars. I'd also have to disagree with your contention that "the interior was nothing close to what AmTravelers are used to": the bedroom interior was actually fairly close to a real Superliner Bedroom, the main difference being that it was wider than a real one, that being mainly because there was only a small sink-and-cupboard assembly close to the transverse wall and to the door, apparently without a toilet-and-shower space.
Regarding the lounge car, it's not clear to me whether you're referring in your post to some lounge car depiction in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, or to the lounge car depiction in Abduction; but if it's the latter, that interior is significantly different from any Amtrak lounge car interior I've ever seen, and is almost certainly a set. (Particularly since, in one shot, the character Karen is filmed from behind a wall-side self-service rack, as if the car's wall had been cut away for the sake of the camera.) It's worth noting that one of the Heritage cars whose exteriors are seen is labeled a "Dining Car", raising the question of whether the filmmakers are under the misconception, frequent among travelers on short-distance corridors such as the Northeast Corridor and the Pacific Surfliner Corridor, that a lounge car is a "dining car".
Henry Kisor: I have to disagree with www.thevine.com.au's reviewer "Clembastow" on three points. First, it's Karen alone, not Nathan and Karen together, who initiates the food break in the midst of their make-out session, and that's clearly because the situation is about to get hotter and heavier, which makes her nervous, and she wants to slow things down. I think most people would agree that that's not unrealistic behavior. Second, I thought that the actor who played Kozlow's henchman--the "Bad Dude", as "Clembastow" puts it--gave quite a good performance, and if he paused to wipe his nose (I actually don't remember the gesture), I'd consider it an effective indication of how casually this character goes about the business of hurting people. Third, I think the reviewer is wrong about the henchman's rolling after being thrown from the train: I think he was rolling in the correct direction, that is to say the same direction as the train.
Gilbert B Norman: I have to disagree with New York Times reviewer Stephen Holden on a couple of points. First, I didn't find Kozlow's threat to kill all of Nathan's Facebook friends to be particularly risible. Yes, it's an absurdly overambitious threat, but it's the sort of thing that, said by an apparently powerful adult to a callow teenager who was in grave danger and therefore not thinking quite straight, would be guaranteed to make a strong impression. If I were in Nathan's position, my thought would probably be, "Well, Kozlow is probably exaggerating by saying he'd kill all my Facebook friends; but even if he only killed one or two, that would be bad enough". Second, regarding the two-part statement made by one of Kozlow's assassins that Nathan (who's attacking him with a fireplace tool) hasn't hurt him badly enough yet to kill him (something that he apparently says out of sheer defiance), and also that there's a bomb in the oven: While that statement has a certain non sequitur quality, I wouldn't call it risible. The assassin is simply being concise because he has to be, particularly because the bomb is about to go off and Nathan needs to be warned about it so he'll stay alive and be available for kidnapping and ransoming later.
Henry Kisor: I have to disagree with Stephen Holden about Taylor Lautner's acting. While I fault Lautner for taking a role in a movie that misrepresents Amtrak so badly (although how many eighteen-year-olds would know anything about that?), and also for taking a role in a movie that has some significant lapses of sense, I thought his acting was entirely satisfactory: as wide-ranging as the role required, and fully nuanced. I think reviewer Holden may just be so prejudiced against teen-heartthrob actors that he failed to observe what Lautner was actually doing in his performance.
Also, regarding your joking statement that "maybe Amtrak marketing knew what it was doing when it OKd the product placement in this movie: nobody could take those risible (love that word!) train crash scenes seriously": While there are a lot of bad misrepresentations of Amtrak in Abduction, there isn't even a single train crash scene in it, let alone several: where did you get the idea that there are? Also, it turns out that Amtrak's participation in this movie is so large, and so integral to the plot, that I would think it goes beyond what could be described as mere "product placement", a term that generally suggests a product appearance that's easily removable and/or easily replaceable. And as I trust my review of Abduction in a separate thread will make clear, I don't think Amtrak's marketing and p.r. people had the slightest idea what they were doing in managing Amtrak's participation in this film, and as far as I'm concerned they should all be fired. But I'll get to that in my review.
Posts: 86 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Mr. Paulshore, might you recall from the production credits, if even possible to view them (how can you with all the exitting traffic - just one more reason I don't go to movies - sooner or later they get to HoBO or Starz), to what extent and in what manner Amtrak's participation in the production is noted?
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Mr. B Norman: As it happens, I always stay for the end credits of movies, partly because I'm interested to see what information they might contain, and partly because, since the music almost always continues to the end of the credits, it's my sense--that is to say, my esthetic sense--that the overall dramatic arc of the film hasn't come to a satisfying conclusion until that music is over. I try to not let the rush of departing audience members bother me, though generally I don't have to deal with it much since I usually go to obscure films, at odd times, and I typically sit close to the front of the auditorium where there aren't that many people.
In answer to your question, there was no mention of Amtrak whatsoever in the credits, despite the fact that the company was obviously heavily involved in the making of the film. I can only think that someone at Amtrak with a little bit of sense realized how inaccurate and unfavorable the portrayal of the company was in the film, and insisted that all mention of Amtrak be removed from the credits. (Could that person have been alerted to the problems by my postings on the subject on this forum a month and a half ago? Who knows?)
Posts: 86 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by mpaulshore: smitty195: Regarding the lounge car, it's not clear to me whether you're referring in your post to some lounge car depiction in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, or to the lounge car depiction in Abduction;
Reference is to "Under Siege 2: Dark Territory". The lounge car interior was filmed in two different locations. The first one was on-board the train, thus, the interior of that car is "real". The second location was in a studio on a Hollywood lot, and it was identical to the rail car. That was the only car that has a "real" interior. All of the other cars in that movie had vacant interiors, and they were used to haul wood (for building props at shoot locations), electrical cable, rigging, lightning, etc. I know the person who was in charge of the railcars for the movie, and he explained to me how it was filmed, and showed me photos of what the interiors of all of the cars looked like. He even has one video where he "walks the train" on the inside, and it's nothing but a gutted shell filled with movie filming "stuff".
On a different note, does anyone know how to access Page 2 of this forum? Not Page 2 of a specific thread, but Page 2 of the Amtrak forum in general. I see that it says we are on "Page 1", but I don't see anything to click on that would take me to Page 2. I'm trying to find out who the author was of the thread about "Abduction" that was eventually closed. I can't recall who that was.
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Gilbert B Norman: Mr. Paulshore, might you recall from the production credits [...] to what extent and in what manner Amtrak's participation in the production is noted?
Product placement doesn't get a mention (after all, they are in the movie itself), though assistance is usually noted. For example, scenes inside a real life building might get a mention of the name/owner of the building, but if it's an obvious building (eg Empire State Building) then not necessarily. No hard and fast rules.
-------------------- Geoff M. Posts: 2426 | From: Apple Valley, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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The weekend's other two new releases fared less well. "Abduction," a thriller starring "Twilight" heartthrob Taylor Lautner, took in $11. 2 million from 3,118 theaters for Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. According to David Spitz, the studio's executive vice president and general sales manager, the film played mainly to Mr. Lautner's fan base, with 68% of the audience being female and 56% being under the age of 25.
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Go see "The Debt". Very unusual, slow-building, spy thriller of a movie!
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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quote:Originally posted by mpaulshore: In answer to your question, there was no mention of Amtrak whatsoever in the credits, despite the fact that the company was obviously heavily involved in the making of the film. I can only think that someone at Amtrak with a little bit of sense realized how inaccurate and unfavorable the portrayal of the company was in the film, and insisted that all mention of Amtrak be removed from the credits. (Could that person have been alerted to the problems by my postings on the subject on this forum a month and a half ago?
Hopefully, this development will have this topic on its way to the Deep Six - guarantee you I've made my last submission to it.
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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