Snowpiercer

Runaway crazy train
For those tired of the superhero formula or the predictable sequel, or heaven forbid the seemingly never ending stream of superhero sequels along comes the runaway crazy train adventure of “Snowpiercer.” Barely advertised and surviving on word of mouth and a unique VOD release just weeks after its theatrical opening, “Snowpiercer” is a violent, occasionally profane but never boring sci-fi thriller by Korean director/writer Bong Joon-ho (2006’s excellent “The Host”), aided by screenwriter Kelly Masterson.
Speaking of superheroes, Chris Evans, yes THAT Chris Evans doesn’t need his Captain America shield to prove himself a terrific protagonist as Curtis, one of the passengers aboard a high-speed train that travels the globe. The train doesn’t stop because in this futuristic thriller, the world has iced over due to a climate-change experiment gone bad—and the survivor/passengers are forced to live in a class system– an especially unfair sentence for Curtis and his friends, most of whom have had to survive in the woeful, impoverished conditions of the last car–for seventeen years, no less.
So an uprising, with the reluctant hero Curtis and his excitable buddy Edgar (Jamie Bell of “Billy Elliot” fame) and advice from an elder sage (John Hurt) seems due. As the ragtag bunch of insurgents make their way toward the head car in order to dethrone the train’s meglo-maniacal, mysterious inventor Wilford (Ed Harris) the group, looking like outcasts from the “Road Warrior” films, confront a variety of bizarre and ever-intensifying enemy forces.
To share much more detail would ruin the surprise of Joon-ho’s gruesome imagination and deliriously twisted humor. Try figuring out which character Twilda Swinton portrays, it might take you a few minutes, yet this might be a career performance.
Yes, “Snowpiercer” isn’t for the faint of heart and while the film builds to an exhilarating climax that whimpers out the last 20 minutes or so (likely the 20 minutes producer Harvey Weinstein unsuccessfully argued to cut) this is a film that is the anti-thesis of a Michael Bay production. It is not necessarily aimed at the masses, but in nearly every frame desires to engage and surprise the audience which it makes its flaws seem irrelevant and its highlights all the more precious. Rated R for violence, language and drug content.
Grade: B+