Transit – Review

Sometimes movies do not get the general release that they deserve. A lot of factors can decide whether it makes it to the big screen. Considering some of the stuff that makes it to the multiplex it is usually not a good sign when a movie is given a DVD and Blu-Ray premiere. So does Transit live down to expectations?

A team of crooks carries out an armoured car heist. It goes awry with one of the guards getting killed before the crooks make good their escape with a large bag of cash. Their plan is to get to a boat docked an inconvenient distance away and sail off to enjoy their loot. The local police react very quickly closing down the roads and searching every car for the suspects. The crooks hatch a plan to get the money through the check by hiding it on the roof rack of a family car going on vacation. Both the family and the crooks make it through the Police check. Now the crooks have to try to get their money back. The family is on a vacation to try to get everyone reconnected. The father has recently been released from prison after being convicted of real estate fraud. This is his last chance to try to win back his wife and two boys. The crooks are after the money and will stop at nothing short of murder to get their stuff back.

This is a fairly formulaic film. It follows pretty much every other film in this genre with little or no surprise or interesting elements. All of the crooks are your standard bad guy types. To begin with, they hatch a very clever plan and pull it easily until the loose cannon baddie decides to do a bit of murder. These guys are obviously supposed to be smart. So why do they spend the rest of the film doing dumber and dumber stuff which only lengthens the run time of the film?  The first question I asked myself was why didn’t they just lay low for a couple of days until the heat died down and they could make good on their escape. Practical but not exactly the recipe for an action horror film.

On a whole the majority of the cast is recognizable from various supporting roles on TV shows like 24, Lost, and rather bizarrely So Random (Current family favorite from the Disney channel). The lead role of the father is played by Jim Caviezel. He is portrayed as an ordinary family man and in a surprising twist for this type of film, he doesn’t suddenly turn into some sort of martial arts expert in his greatest moment of need. He always seems a bit lost a not too sure what to do to save his family. It’s the best thing about the film.

It was a story that has been told before and unfortunately for Transit, it has been told far better than this. Very Average.

John McArthur
Latest posts by (see all)

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.