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The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This remake of the 1952 noir classic The Narrow Margin has a lot more budget attached to it and some of the Clint Eastwood classic The Gauntlet tossed in as well. Like Charles McGraw in the original and Eastwood, Gene Hackman has to bring in a witness who can nail big time mobster Harris Yulin. Nail him for murder one.Hackman and cop M. Emmett Walsh locate witness Anne Archer up in the Canadian woods in a really remote spot. But the bad guys are on to them and Walsh is killed. The two make it to a southbound train for Los Angeles, but unarmed they are sitting ducks for the contract killers sent to get them. Hackman and Archer really have to use their wits to out think these people to stay alive.Hackman who has an edginess to his screen persona which makes castable as both good and bad guys with various shades to their character. Narrow Margin is one of the few films you will see him in as a thoroughgoing good guy.What Archer did is unfortunately be in the wrong place at the wrong time and what Yulin did wrong is be on the scene of a murder he ordered the hit for of J.T.Walsh a mob lawyer who stole from him. They didn't know she was there, but find out soon enough. Archer is the perfect portrayal of a witness who just wants to run and hide. As for Yulin, he forgot that successful crime families like the Corleones use a lot of buffers.Good tension that doesn't let up for a second once Archer is located and she and Hackman board the train.

This film was almost constantly annoying. The main character, supposedly an ex-Marine, manages to get his hands on actual guns several times, which might well have evened up the odds a little in his attempts to escape the assassins sent to kill his charge, so of course the screenwriter inserted bits of business each time to let the "hero" screw it up. He loses one gun whilst he stops to preen himself in a mirror, t'other whilst he tosses off a quip evidently meant to display the screenwriter's facility with Bondish repartee, and is so stuck on himself that he fails to notice when the obvious decoy on the train makes goo-goo eyes at him, ignoring countless real hunks in the process, and so sets up the mandatory denouement in which the decoy (quelle surprise!) acts out the perfect "villain taunting the hero" scene and is vanquished mid-taunt, whilst Bond... pardon... one or another of the Marx Brothers, utters the perfect quip, which in real life would have allowed the decoy to escape and kill both witness and the main character, but of course it doesn't, since the screenwriter couldn't let that happen, so it didn't, but only through brute force, wrestling a happy ending out of a bloody mash-up.I don't mind a little suspension of disbelief, but I prefer honest slapstick to whatever the heck this was.

Carol Hunnicut inadvertently witnesses a mob hit, and her testimony can convict a very powerful gangster. Deputy district attorney Robert Caulfield is determined to put her on the stand and flies to a remote location in Canada where she is hiding out, but it's not long before the mob are on their trail. Frantically, they board a large passenger train going to Vancouver, but will they ever get off the train alive …This is a taut, dependable thriller; nothing special, but there isn't a dull scene anywhere and crucially Hyams has real gift for the rhythm of his movies - scenes flow effortlessly together and the atmosphere of tension is sustained from start to finish. The material is familiar but the execution is first rate, and reliable Hackman is the perfect anchor around which the film is built, an action hero without macho posturing or moralistic superiority. The film is as interesting when he's quietly negotiating with the bad guys as when they're chasing him in a helicopter, and that's the way it should be. There's also a terrific score by Bruce Broughton with a creepy four note piano motif, and fabulous stuntwork by Glenn Wilder - the finale atop the train is one of those rare scenes where the actors really look like they are in danger. A remake of the classic 1952 Richard Fleischer/Earl Felton film noir The Narrow Margin, this script isn't quite as clever (in the original the woman is the mobster's widow and there's a clever identity twist), but still has some surprises in store. Produced by Carolco Pictures (They Live, Shocker), with exteriors shot in beautiful British Columbia, this is a bad movie to be in if you're an actor called Walsh - both of them get killed in the first twenty minutes !

It's good as average thriller from the 1980s, but it allowed some nasty questions to hang around in your brain such as : what could've happened to such a picture with another director who wasn't once a respected director of photography like (Peter Hyams) ?!, or if the same script had been given to (James Cameron) or (John McTiernan) ? Actually they might've exploded everything to reach the most extreme limit by making one critical climax after another !Maybe what allowed those questions is the style of the movie itself altogether. Yes, it's a low tune, low budget kind of movie. But, it's nice one. In fact, the problem is mainly in us. We want all the movies to be just one movie (the most successful one in our time) and it's impossible not because the history doesn't repeat itself only, but because that would distort all the movies also ! Here it's fair without any crazy Action or CGI's companionship, and It's great to see (Gene Hackman) in anything. True that this rule has some exceptions, but this movie is not one of them. I think this time I have just the screenwriter to blame not to utilize some parts to make it more hot and perhaps that's the reason why this movie seemed more like a TV production or as one had been made by the 1950s' standards. It's not big, not loud, though not bad. So try to think of it as a clever intermission between (Rambo) and (Die Hard), or as a peaceful version of (The Gauntlet) however in a train, or as a solid old fashion kind of thriller.