A mildly entertaining effort
Omid Nooshin’s debut indie Last Passenger, was financed by the UK Film Council–the same service that helped with projects like My Week With Marilyn and The Iron Lady. Nooshin has some experience, with an impressive list of Short films, however, this film proved to be a bit more challenging for Nooshin. I could imagine the tech and logistic side of things would pose problematic, for even the seasoned filmmaker. But surprisingly, it was handled rather competently by the director.
Netflix Hemlock Grove star, Dougray Scott is an actor who we tend to easily overlook as he’s not te type of actor that makes an impact on screen, but I think my fellow countryman simply hasn’t had the right role to make people pay attention. He’s never went beyond the B-list rankings and for good reason. however, he’s more than able to play the lead character here. In Last Passenger he takes everything in his stride and seems more than comfortable playing the hero doctor whose been thrown into a life threatening situation with his young son. He is stuck on a runaway train with a crazed driver who won’t let his intentions be known. It’s up to the passengers to find out for themselves.
Keeping our hero coma fewe several passengers including the lovely Kara Tointon (The Sweeney). We also have David Schofield (Pirates of the Caribbean saga) who most older viewers will remember from An American Werewolf in London. He makes the perfect harbinger of doom that used to be found in almost every Brit Horror movie made back in the day when Hammer Horror reigned supreme.
This isn’t quite a TV Movie but you’d be forgiven if you thought it was. It’s certainly a watchable effort but ultimately forgettable, with acceptable acting, mediocre production values and a bit less excitement than one could have hoped for.
Grade: C+
