Eye Candy #285 - "Transiberian"

Transiberian:  Another entry into the “Eastern Europe is a Lousy Place” sub-genre of thrillers, about an American missionary couple taking the Transiberia Railway from Peking to Moscow.  While on their trip, they meet another pair of expatriates, a man and a woman, who insert themselves into their lives in about five minutes and in keeping with all good tropes of the genre, are not what they appear to be.  Soon they find themselves mixed up with the Russian mob and various other baddies, not to mention the detached Russian natives that are anything but helpful.  Got a few name actors in this one, including Woody Harrelson, Thomas Kretschmann (completely wasted here in a supporting role), and Ben Kingsley, the British equivalent of Gene Hackman (he apparently will star in any script that comes his way).  The setting and mood are appropriately bleak, and this certainly isn’t a movie that the Russian Tourism Board would want you to watch. Still, it lacks “oomph” and for a ’thriller’, it’s fairly sedate.  Woodchuck sez, “Could have been better.  Should have been better.”