User reviews

The movie centers upon Van Damme and his family ( Susan Gibney as wife and his true son ). When in a train happens strange events Jean Claude is helped by a thief spy ( Laura Harring ).

They'll have confront a villain(Tomas Arana) and henchmen who have obtained a lethal virus. In the confrontation the virus outbreaks originating the nightmare .

The runtime film is adjusted : one hour and sixty minutes approx. , it's fast moving and enough bemusing .

From the beginning to the end the action is unstoppable.

In the motion picture there are suspense, emotions, shootouts, pursuits but with little budget , it's a B series movie with less money than Van Damme's previous films .

The storyline is similarly written two films of the 70s and 90s : ¨Cassandra Crossing ( by George Pan Cosmatos )¨and ¨Under Siege 2 ¨ ( Geoff Murphy ), it rips off both movies.

The picture is produced by 777 Films which is Van Damme's property. Also by ¨ Millenniun ¨ the production company in charge of Avi Lerner, Danny Lerner, Boaz Davison and Trevor Short who are making a lot of films in the 90s and 2000s, likeness to ¨Cannon¨(Menahem Golan and Yoran Globus) in the 80s.

The flick will appeal to Van Damme enthusiast and action fans.

Rating: 5/10 average

Why did Van Damme make this? Maybe he just had some free time or he agreed to make it if they let his son co-star. Hopefully we never see his son teaming up with him in another movie. On the DVD making-of-featurette, they brag about all the special effects. This movie contains the fakest looking helicopter I have ever seen. At the end all the helicopters are real but it is just stock footage from another movie. This movie is very similar to "Agent Red" with Dolph Lundgren except Derailed lacks the sense of humor.

The headline says it all.

From atrocious action scenes to pathetic sound, from worse than amateur special effects to pathetic editing this film just plain bad. No other way of putting it. It throws one over used cliché after another, along with bad acting, and horrendous direction.

It tries to be a big action film but with its sets and design, but it all looks so fake and ridiculous that you'll feel ripped off, even if you saw this movie for free.

The "story" is about the theft of a deadly virus, which was stored in some guy's desk and it looks like an over the counter pain medicine, by a lady thief who must be escorted to safety from a bunch of stupid terrorists. Van Damme is assigned to help her. Throw in some unnecessary family drama and you have this film in a nutshell. Avoid it. 1/10

Rated R: violence and profanity

Forced to conceal his real job from his family, international agent Jacques Kristoff tells them he is taking a train journey with a banking client where really he is escorting the beautiful Galina Konstantin and a biological weapons package to safety across the border. Regardless, his family surprise him on the train, thinking it will be a nice gesture and end up thinking he is having an affair. Before he can apologise and explain, terrorists led by the ruthless Mason Cole seize the train and start hunting for Galina and the virus. With his family in danger and the virus released on board, Jacques must not only stop the terrorists but do so before the Governent take the only available option to stop an outbreak.

Ten years or so is quite a long time. About ten years ago I had just moved to England for the first time and started studying. Since then I've been married, divorced, bought a house, got several jobs and owned one very knackered car. But the mid-nineties must seem even longer ago for Van Damme because then he was having hits like Universal Soldier and Time Cop whereas by 2002 he had sunk to appearing in rubbish like this – not that he was ever a great star but this film is below even him. The plot is a basic rip off of Under Siege 2 crossed with Cassandra Crossing with any sense of fun, excitement or involvement skilfully removed by writers who between them are responsible for other classics include Octopus, Octopus 2: River of Fear (both Davidson) and Crocodile and Crocodile 2: Death Roll (both Anderson). It doesn't help that the man chosen to pull it all together as director is the man who made Shark Attack with lots of stock footage and no thrills.

The plot is messy and pointless – people apparently die then return with no explanation, the action lacks logic and the whole virus thing is just daft. With this type of film this stuff usually can be forgotten if the action is slick and the film is fun to watch; Under Siege 2 is a good example – it is rubbish but I quite enjoyed it so I forgave it. However the action here is poor with basic, uninspiring fights and no real tension; when I saw Van Damme jumping around the train on a motorbike I felt like just turning it off in disgust. The supporting "actors" dying one the train did nothing to make me care one way or the other and the whole thing just felt cheap. The effects make this worse, being as they are a mix of rubbish computer effects or rubbish model work or a rubbish combination of both.

The writing is clunky and full of dialogue that if even a horse spoke it your surprise at a speaking horse would come secondary to the annoyance you feel towards the unconvincing nature of his words. Already hamstrung by this the cast can do nothing to improve the situation; although many of the cast appear perfectly at home at this level. It speaks volumes that Van Damme is actually one of the best performances in the film; he is mean and tough in style – just a shame the action and dialogue are so poor that he can't do anything with it. The rest of the cast are so-so support. We have the tough baddie in a humourless and dour Arana, a sexy female co-star in Harring (who does fill the sexy requirement well), loads of European rent-a-thugs and a train load of hammy dying people including Gibney, Bowman, Van Varenberg (who can kick and can't act, hmmm) and the hilariously named Binky van Bilderbeek, who must have had a lot of fun in his fancy English school as a child.

Overall this shambles is loaded with clichés, bad dialogue, bad direction, cheap effects and bad performances. Fun, excitement, humour, thrills and entertainment all got off at the last stop and nothing of value got on in its place. Even Van Damme fans will be turned off by this rubbish and it is only Steven Seagal fans that should be happy because it at least shows what an entertaining film Under Siege 2 really was.

This is just plain bad, a movie without a single redeeming feature the story is as clichéd as they come imagine Under Siege 2 with added bio-chemical weapons and half the budget. Add some real bad acting from all involved, mix with some cheap MTV style editing that trys to make the film unique but just means you can't see what the hell is going on but then again after 15mins you just wont care whats happening.

I'm going to make a pretty bold statement this is Jean Claude van Dammes worst ever film and thats some statement. J.V.D was never a great actor but he used to make some entertaining enough action flicks (see Kickboxer, Bloodsport etc) but avoid this one like the plague. I don't think there's even one fun action sequence to enjoy.

2/10 - Avoid at all costs.

A train full of terrorists. A biological weapon. Sound familiar? Well it is due to the fact Derailed borrows most of its ideas and scenarios from other movies. Jean Claude Van Damme stars as a special agent trying to get a thief and her cargo from one point to another. Mode of transportation is a train and like most action fans will immediately think of is Under Siege 2. Of course that movie utilized this idea much better but we are working on a much lower budget. The cargo happens to be vials of a toxic nature that so happen to be wanted by the bad guys. This movie is strictly for hardcore Van Damme fans only. Essentially he is the only real saving grace of the movie as is Laura Harring who plays the thief. The biggest problem with this film? Everything else. Borrowed story, terrible editing, horrible cheap effects, sound design that needs to be heard to be believed. For i'm certain movie fans can pick up sound effects from other things that are used in certain spots throughout. JCVD should have skipped this one but he didn't and his fans get treated to this mediocre film. Not his fault of course but as a loyal Van Damme fan myself, even I thought this film was bad. Even if you can get passed the minor gripes and try to enjoy the movie, the editing and effects will make you think twice. Everything looks cheap and shoddy.The bad guys are stereotypical in every form and their deaths in some cases are over-exaggerated. Everybody makes bad films from time to time and this is at the bottom of Van Damme's filmography. It would have been a lot better in someone's else hands who understands how to use Van Damme and his talents correctly. Still just off of Van DAmme alone I'm giving this a 4 out of 10. The movie will pass some time if you are looking to kill some but you will be wondering how this movie derailed so bad.

The actress which play the thief is quite sexy and that's the best thing about this movie. "Derailed" is another clone of "Die hard " with Jean Claude Van Damme instead of Willis and the train instead of skyscraper. There were some good "Die hard" clones – "Under siege" and "Cliffhanger". "Derailed" feels here like a clone of clone of "Die hard" – "Under siege 2" (with a little bit of "Cassandra's crossing"). The problem is that "Under siege 2" was a watchable popcorn , while "Derailed " is a crime against humanity.

The best way to describe "Derailed" is that you should imagine a really good action movie . Now throw to the garbage every element that makes a good action movie a pleasure to watch – quotable dialogue , humor , memorable hero and villains , breathtaking action scenes , decent story and good technical quality (music , editing and so on) . In the end you will have something like "Derailed".

Special effects that probably were made by drunk amateurs . The acting so bad that Van Damme is the best actor in the movie . Editing that doesn't even deserves to be called poor. Action scenes that will make your head hurt . The scene with the motorcycle is one of the worst scenes ever made . You can't SEE ANYTHING . Some bad techno music . Bad dialogues. Dumb story.

Van Damme had some decent movies in his career . This isn't one of them. I give it 1/10.

Rent this film only if you want to see how bad it is and how low Van Damme has sunk. Replicant was still a decent film but Derailed is just about the worst Van Damme movie and one of the worst films I've seen in my life. As you know by now it's an Under Siege 2 clone with Van Damme trying to bring back some good fight scenes from his earlier films. There is a scene where he fights a la Maximum Risk (elevator scene) which sucks. The special effects...made by ILM's rejects and the acting reminds me of how bad I acted in highschool drama lessons. This movie is bad, it reminds me of Adrenalin (with Christopher Lambert)...just want to press fastforward but force yourself not too because you paid nearly 4 euro to see it and want to make it worth the rent.

This movie isnt one of Van Damme's best. It was a low budget action flick and if you can just get past that(which isnt too hard to do) then you will find yourself having fun. Its a fun movie to watch, it moves along fast and the plot is solid. The best fight scene is with the big russian guy who was also in Maximum Risk. Well this movie is not that bad and in my opinion is worth a watch. For Van Damme fans and anyone else who enjoys a fun action movie. 9/10.

Yes I've read that Derailed is a terrible film with some of the worst effects ever but as a very low-budget Direct-to-video flick, well i did like it as a fun flick.

For really decent Direct-to-dvd Van Damme flicks checkout his, Pound of Flesh & Wake of Death but i did enjoy this 70's Disaster movie type. I say 70's Disaster movie because the film at times looked like that cinematography (probably because of it's low-budget) & how towards the end of the film it becomes a group of people trying to survive a deadly virus & escape from the train that is heading for Disaster & the 70's vibe was even in Van Damme's wardrobe (Clothes) he looked like a hero from those old 70's films, even 70's style with the gun he carried which was a six-shooter revolver & all 70's movie cops carried a revolver. It's actually the best I've seen him look. My Childhood hero plays an agent trying to get a theif (a very good Laura Harring) on to a train & to Munich safely but of course terrorists want her for whatever she'd stolen & so Van Damme as Philip is in the middle of all this action. Philip is a good guy, a family man & a good government agent & I've gotta admit it that Van Damme gives a very good performance!!! He does the action but also does the emotions too, Philip is a likeable lead hero. All the other actors/minor characters & what have you are all ok for what they have to do but it is Van Damme's movie & he's the best part of it. For a very low-budget & low-quality little B-movie that was always destined to hit the bottom shelves of Blockbuster video stores, it's actually a fun ride.

I've seen much, much worse low-budget films & even worse mega budget films too & I've always enjoyed films set on trains with bad guys taking them over such as Narrow Margin & Under Siege 2 & Evasive Action for example & Derailed fits into that genre nicely.

Yes the effects are ridiculously cheap 'N' tacky looking with dodgy CGI & the blue screen scenes are noticeable but the actual look of the film is decent & atleast not filmed on digitally!!! The terrorists are typical villains in everyway but hey their only there to get wiped out by Van Damme anyway.

Derailed, a fun B-movie ride.

Jean-Claude Van Damme vs. terrorists on a train with biological weapons figure into the worst film that Van Damme has ever been in. This movie has it all, atrocious acting, sub- par action scenes, crap special effects, a ridiculously awful story line. There is sincerely nothing that can be salvaged from this train wreck of a film. Fortunately, JCVD would rebound with some pretty good films later on, but that's little solace to the poor soul who has to suffer through this dreadful movie. There are truly not enough words in the English language that can properly convey how much I truly loathe this film. Hell, I'm surprised that The Asylum didn't put this one out (yes it's THAT bad)

As others have commented, this is a blatant rip-off of THE CASSANDRA CROSSING (including a bridge climax!), as well as UNDER SIEGE 2. So there is nothing new here, to say the least. In fact, there's a lot that could be considered "old", such as cheesy modelwork and remarkably unexciting chase sequences. The "new" style effects (computer graphics) look equally as bad.

As for the martial arts, they are pretty uninspired for the most part (a lot of simple punches and relatively simple kicks), and are *very* badly directed, with the action in-your-face with the camera jiggling around to boot. These sequences aren't the only ones that don't make much sense in the movie. There are several jumps in the narrative that are jarring, and a few times where characters seem to die and soon afterwards come back to life.

How much lower will Van Damme go?

The beginning knocked it off. In 2002 it seems, that we all here in Slovakia drive cars from 1970's, there are red-berets and barbwire everywhere and we hunt mammoths for dinner :-D. Why to create such image of the post-communist country? It's been at least 10 years past the era when this title was in production. Doesn't make sense at all. Not to mention that almost none of the scenes were actually shot in Bratislava (I believe it is Sofia, Bulgaria).

The entire movie is so bad I don't even care for commenting extensively. Inaccurate set, awkward action scenes, poor characters, idiotic story. Full of completely non-sense artificial constructs, shallow and predictable plot. The only thing that made sense here was Jean Claude Van Damme and what you expected of his performance while he attempts to save the day. Otherwise, just bad.

If you value your time, avoid watching this title (which I wouldn't even dare to call a decent movie)!

Bad, bad, bad... This a movie with no story, no acting, no emotions and no sense! It is full of really bad and cheesy special f/x... Why do they insist on making something knowing that they do not have the budget to create them properly. It would have been much better to leave them out completely.

In other, the story is nonsensical, we never get the whys and hows, the science is completely flawed, its just action for the sake of action... The viewer could not care less what will happen to the protagonists most of the time... In other words, a total waste of time. The only reason it gets three stars is that there are even worse movies out there.

Save yourself £3 and dont even bother with this. The stunt scenes are terrible with Van Damme jumping between moving trains on a motor bike. Rubbish storyline and terrible acting doesn't help either. The only bonus is Laura Elena Harring who is a top Bird !!!

Jacques Kristoff (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is an agent assigned to protect a woman, who stole a deadly virus in Slovakia, in a travel by train to Munich. His wife, his son and his daughter get in the train without previous notice to make a surprise party for him, as well as a group of terrorists, trying to retrieve the virus. While fighting, the virus is released in a wagon and the passengers get sick. This film is so dreadful that does not deserve much time in writing a review. The effects, dialogs, performances, direction are awful. The screenplay has lots of flaws. The grimace of the black terrorist is ridiculous and pathetic. Van Damme needs to retire. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): `Agente Biológico' (`Biological Agent')

...that's best viewed in a beer induced stupor or under mind numbing medication. The impossible plot contrivances are standard issue for low grade action movies (i.e. our hero is tossed off a bullet train by the bad guys...but he's evidently wearing magnetic underwear, as he miraculously manages to hang on).

The action sequences are undermined by quick cuts,dropped frames,and split screens. (This chop chop style belongs is better suited for a Japanese Steak house).

Overall though, it's not a bad time waster that's over before it becomes too tedious. With low expectations, you might enjoy it.

Firstly, before I review Derailed I'd like to put this message or rather pose this question of action fans. How is it possible that you guys can sit down and critique an action movie on its cheesiness and cinematic shortcomings? It's an action movie, that's typical of the genre and isn't worth mentioning to the rest of us. I think anybody would have to be out of their mind to grade action movies along the same lines as serious, dramatic Oscar-TYPE movies. Shame on you, my friends and I totally get off on the very failings you point out. The cheesier the better. Now the review...

Derailed undoubtedly struck me from the first as being yet another UNDER SIEGE 2 ripoff. But trust me, Van Damme hardly has his choice of tremendous scripts since becoming obscured in the memory of Hollywood. The action is predictable to anyone familiar to the genre, however hardcore Van Damme fans will get off on at least a couple hilarious moments like throwing one of the hostage-takers 15 feet with one arm headfirst into a door and then throwing him off the train with one arm. And the totally low-budget train-roof scene where one hostage-taker goes flying after a car explosion into one of the fakest backgrounds I've seen. Plus, you can't forget the night to day same scene transition! All in all, if you like the man, it's money well spent!

This is truly one of the most insane and poorly directed action movies I've ever seen. The sheer incompetence on display from the director and editor is enough to make this possibly the worst movie of JCVD's career in terms of quality. Yet despite all that it is quite entertaining and it could easily have been a 6 from me as its hilariously bad for most of it. However, the problem is with the constant quick cuts which are a big part of the movie. It feels as if there are about 200 cuts per minute in this movie and I am not exaggerating. This brings the movie down a little as it gets very tedious to watch and it's incredibly hard to follow what's going on in certain scenes. The director in general had a clear affinity for trying all the possible camera tricks he could think of; this movie has everything including slow-motion shots, stills, rapid zoom-ins etc. I'm actually planning on seeing more Bob Misiorowski movies to see if they're all as enjoyably terrible. As for Van Damme, this seems to be one of his coke-binge movies and it shows as he just seems very disinterested for most of the movie. He can't be blamed though as he probably knew what this movie was, as did the rest of the cast. Everyone just doesn't care or wonderfully overacts to glorious results. The bad guys are especially hilarious in this as they seemed to have been told to act as if they were in a state of perpetual anger that shows in their facial expressions which just cannot be taken seriously at all. Overall, I recommend any Van Damme fan watches this as it's worth seeing it just to see how insane and incompetent it is.