Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

casaverdeherb Very little to like here, even if you love Brando. Although incredibly overweight in this one (and probably without extra padding),he remained true to his character despite having very little to work with. Sutherland's brief appearance is hardly more than a cameo and wasn't given any chance to show his stuff. The two leads were more than adequate with their portrayal, however, the weak screenplay and unfunny farcical plot cannot be save by good, named actors. Waste of time and money. At last the casting was decent, although little or no character development wasted the talent. The best part was the train wreck, which pretty much sums up the movie.

Zen Bones Currently this film has a 4.8 rating here at IMDb but in my opinion, VERY unjustly so! It teeters constantly between quirky, sweet humor, and macabre, almost cartoonish dark comedy. Which is to say, it's quintessential Brando. There's even a brief freeze-frame in the film of Brando with his hands flapping by his face in a 'neah-neah' gesture that is so 'Brandoesque'. He knows that his physical presence (a seemingly 500-pound ballet dancer) is a grand mixture of Father Christmas, Charlie Chaplin, Edward G. Robinson, and the man who bites off the heads of chickens at the circus. You just never know what you're going to get with him, so you - and the other characters in the film - are always kept a bit on edge (he played a somewhat similar character in "The Freshman"; another film that I've always thought was underrated).Anyway, the train heist is merely a minor plot point, so I'm guessing that maybe that's why the movie bombed. Audiences were probably expecting a heist story with a solid, formula plot (probably along the scale of "Oceans Twelve"), and I'm guessing they felt extremely uncomfortable with the film's humble speed. The big-name cast also probably didn't help, because the film has a real 'Canadian provincial' feel to it (Hollywood, this film is not!). Nevertheless, the entire cast is fantastic; particularly Thomas Haden Church who I never would have guessed was the same guy in "Sideways"! Perhaps I'm just nuts, but I think this is a sleeper gem that has yet to find its true audience.

Captain1982 I watched this today and really enjoyed it. I looked through the credits and saw the name Martin Sheen and remembered Apocalypse Now. Both Brando and Martin together again really interesting i thought to myself. So i watched the film waiting and wondering when he would come into the film. It was disappointing that he was only in it for less than 10 seconds but I thought what he says to Marlon is equally funny and brilliant.I thought the film to be a bit thin on the relationship between Sutherland and Sorvino but the film is great enough to sit next to the other DVDs in my collection.RECOMMENDED.

OttoJederman Any film with Marlon Brando is worth watching and I was not disappointed by this one. It is as though a bunch of big name stars got together and decided to make a screwball sicko black comedy. The film is erratic but overall they succeeded.Marlon Brando is superb as The Swede, a vicious and sadistic prison warden and a true `River of Fire' on earth. He clearly enjoyed this role. Charlie Sheen is funny but badly miscast loser due to his lack of accent (more on that later). Thomas Church is wonderful as Larry, a dim bulb but big-hearted co-accomplice with Bud. Donald Sutherland is very disappointing as Judge Rausenberg, as is Mira Sorvino as his daughter the FBI agent. The scheming, teenage twins were funny and wonderful.As with many screwball comedies, the plot jumped around frenetically and was difficult to follow. Still, I found it cohesive if lacking in continuity. The strongest points were the scenes with the Swede, the twins, and Larry and Bud while the weakest point was probably the laughably easy train robbery. Also, I found the pit bull like violence in the prison unrealistic and difficult to deal with.Having lived in Minnesota, I was disappointed by some of the details of the movie. First, Marlon moved his hands a lot when he talked while any Minnesotan knows that a true Swede talks with his hands still --- very still indeed --- at his sides. Yah sure, yabecha! Also, the accents were very erratic. Larry had a true northern Minnesota accent while Charlie Sheen had no accent at all --- he was miscast. Marlon and Donald did fairly well but the twins sounded like Valley girls pretending to be Minnesotans --- their enthusiasm for their roles made this cute rather than annoying. The film was so erratic and had such poor continuity that I can't give it more than a six but it still was worth seeing at least once. I recommend it to anyone with an open mind who can deal with the violence and the sexual content. This film definitely is not for children.