Thursday, May 5, 2022

Tubi Thursday: Crackerjack 2 (aka Hostage Train)

 Are you ready for the next part of the Story?  Well, too bad.

Instead, here's something similar, but also different in some big ways.  It's...

A bad man- Hans Becker- is buying explosives for a big mission/attack.  Jack Wild is trying to stop him.

The reason- Becker killed his wife.

Yes, even though the bad guy in the LAST FILM killed his Wife AND KIDS a year ago, now THIS guy killed his Wife and no kids 8 years ago.
Oh and Jack Wild- who as you may have noticed is played by Judge Reinhold- is not with K.C. from the last Film.

He's with Carol Alt, who appears in her underwear in her first 2 Scenes, because '90s.
She ends up on a Train with some business people for her job, which is captured by Becker's crew.

With no build-up, an unseen guy from the train reveals that he's the Boss.  That sure...happened.

Seriously, at least have ONE SCENE on the Train where he's faking it and 'boom!' there's a surprise.
Since this is still a Die Hard, But... Film, Jack ends up inside the tunnel-filled Bunker inside of a Mountain (is this a thing that exists?) with them all.

He's not on the Train long enough for this to be Under Siege 3 though.

Can Judge be the Star without Axl Foley to take the lead?
So now he's got to figure out how to make an escape, how to stop the bad guys AND how to stop the guy who killed his Wife (in this timeline), which somehow erased his kids.

Can he do it?

Of course he can- it's a '90s Action Film.  The End.
A pretty by-the-numbers affair.  On the plus side, it didn't succumb to Sequelitis.  Then again, it did have 2 main Villains, so...

Regardless, Crackerjack 2 is barely a Sequel.  It's all about this new lady, this never-mentioned Partner and a new set of Villains.  As mentioned once or twice, the Villain motivation is retconned worse than in Spider-Man 3.

Is this new Villain as good as the last one?  Yes and No.  Even when slumming it, Christopher Plummer was really good (if more hammy than a Triple Ham Sandwich).  This one- Character Actor Michael Sarrazin- is less goofy and more menacing.  He also has a more easy to digest motivation- he wants to steal money.  

No Fourth Reich stuff.  That said, you do have a Czech Actor playing Becker, which means that his German accent slips more than Gerald Ford on a too fast Treadmill.  He's also worked more in the years since this Film than anyone else, so there.

Crackerjack 2 is really, really generic.  Like Store Brand Soda, it's better than nothing...but isn't the real thing you want.  I will say that I need more of her in my life though.

A

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