Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

best movie i've ever seen.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Peter Hyams directing masterpiece besides his other masterpiece called "Capricorn One".Both represent the pinnacle of succes of his entire carreer. Gotta give this a try. Based on the rko picture "The narrow margin". 2 assasins want to kill a witness before she is about to testify in court. Gene Hackman is there to protect her while they are on a train from Canada to the US court. Will they survive the train ride ?Anne Archer leading actress, best performance of her entire carreer. Gene Hackman maybe isnt known very well anymore by the younger audience, but this guy was one of the very best american actors of the seventies, eighties AND nineties. Seeing is believing, you can judge for yourself. All the actors act true to life. In a serious thriller like this, realism is SO important. It's all about the details of acting and dialogue that make this thriller rise far above all other mediocre suspense stories. "Narrow Margin" is a classic that has stood the test of time. Almost 30 years old, and from beginning to end it still mesmirizes me, even after having seen it over 15 times...Terrific stunts on the train, no cgi stuff. It is NOT a 100% straight action thriller by the way. It is mostly a suspense thriller, with lots of witty and true to life dialogue. But the few stunts that are done are good old fashioned true to life. When you see a man hanging on the side of a speeding train, then it is actually REALLY just that. Truly impressive to see the actors themselves walking on the roof of a speeding train. Finally I wanna applaud the music score! The suspenseful gorgeous soundtrack is just do die for. Shreek and eery thin string arrangements, that conjure up so much eery tension. Few films nowadays get a soundtrack in which every scene has its dedicated score. This movie may look like just an ordinary thriller, but lots of attention for detail went into the making of Peter Hyams masterpiece.Therefore it is especially recommended for those who can appreciate the finer qualities of movies with regard to acting and dialogue. (Lesser suited for those who long for shock effects or speedy action scenes.)You gotta give this a try. It is a rock solid suspense thriller. They dont get made like this anymore.

Richard Fleischer's "The Narrow Margin" was a great little B-Movie and a classic suspense picture. Peter Hyams' remake is hardly in the same class but it's no disgrace either. It's glossier and done on an altogether larger scale and it makes superb use of some spectacular Canadian scenery. This time it's Anne Archer who is the witness to a killing and Gene Hackman is the Deputy District Attorney trying to keep her alive so she can testify against Mafia boss Harris Yulin. It keeps its train board setting and Hyams builds suspense very nicely in this reasonably claustrophobic locale. Those fine character actors J.T. and M Emmett Walsh are also on hand though they are dispatched much too early for my liking. Not a classic, then, but very enjoyable nevertheless.

A remake of a 1952, Narrow Margin manages to evoke not only an old way of life but a nearly vanished breed of filmmaking. This is an "R" rated action-thriller for actual grown ups. It's got some excitement, suspense and a few expletives, which back in 1990 guaranteed this thing an "R" but today might slip past as "PG-13", but the star of the movie is a spry 60, his leading lady is 42 and the storytelling is meant to appeal to viewers of that age without insulting their intelligence or taste. Outside of maybe the James Bond franchise, nobody really makes action-thrillers for an adult audience anymore. You basically just have to watch whatever cartoonish crap the kids are into.While on a blind date, Carol Hunnicut (Anne Archer) witnesses a murder. She flees to Canada to hide but because she's the only one who can connect a menacing mobster (Harris Yulin) to the killing, an insolent assistant DA named Caulfield (Gene Hackman) sets out to bring her back to Los Angeles to testify. After a deadly helicopter attack, Carol and Caulfield wind up trapped on a train as it chugs through the Canadian wilderness with two mob killers on board. With nowhere to run and only a few places to hide, the reluctant witness and the defiant prosecutor have to work together if they hope to survive.Made in a world before omnipresent cell phones and by a film industry that didn't turn every knob up to 11 for every second of screen time, Narrow Margin looks, feels and acts like a period piece. The setting is only slightly more familiar than the 1890s and the filmmaking has more in common with the 1940s than it does with today. So your reaction to this motion picture will depend on the diversity and leniency of you cinema palate. As put off as you are by the circumstance and the styling of the film, that's how much you'll be bothered by little plot holes and clunky sub plots. For example, Caulfield has several encounters with another woman on the train and they're such a blatant digression from the main story, you can't help but suspect they're leading to something, deflating the surprise when they do.If you keep an open mind, however, there's something to enjoy about a thriller that's more than an assembly line moving characters from one stunt extravaganza to another. Indeed, it's the personal dynamic between Carol and Caulfield that fills up most of the story, giving it a more honestly dramatic tone than usual. There's a good scene where Anne Archer gets to strut her stuff as Carol finally opens up and unloads on Caulfield and another when Caulfield gets tired of indulging his witness' reluctance and lays this blunt guilt trip on her. And when Caulfield finally gets a face-to-face meeting with the killers, it's a nice bit of business where James B. Sikking carries the action as the lead hit-man until Hackman steps in with his always surprising power to both end the discussion and propel the film forward into its final act.I wouldn't say Narrow Margin is a great film, though it does have a great cast. J.T. Walsh, M. Emmett Walsh and Harris Yulin are the sort of character actors that you can almost put them in any role, in any sort of tale, and they'll make it better through their presence. Seeing the aforementioned Sikking was enough to make me want to go watch some old episodes of Hill Street Blues and Nigel Bennet as the 2nd hit-man on the train almost makes me want to do the same with Forever Knight. When you've got someone like Hackman leading the way, it's essential that the other performers are able to keep up with him.Director Peter Hyams also makes good use of his train setting, both for thrills and other aspects of storytelling. I t's an inherently more interesting way to travel and offers up far more opportunities for physical movement than either flying or driving. The rooftop climax used here may somewhat pale when compared to the wire-fu, jump cut, CGI-frenzy of modern action sequences, but that's a bothersome bit of bar raising which is going to plague Hollywood for a very long time.Though dated, Narrow Margin is still worth seeing, especially when measured against the never ending torrent of misfires, failures and nigh-unwatchable garbage with which the movie industry assaults us. I prefer seeing an old film that's okay to a new one that sucks. Your mileage may vary.

Carol Hunnicut inadvertently witnesses a mob hit, and her testimony can convict a very powerful gangster. Deputy district attorney Robert Caulfield is determined to put her on the stand and flies to a remote location in Canada where she is hiding out, but it's not long before the mob are on their trail. Frantically, they board a large passenger train going to Vancouver, but will they ever get off the train alive …This is a taut, dependable thriller; nothing special, but there isn't a dull scene anywhere and crucially Hyams has real gift for the rhythm of his movies - scenes flow effortlessly together and the atmosphere of tension is sustained from start to finish. The material is familiar but the execution is first rate, and reliable Hackman is the perfect anchor around which the film is built, an action hero without macho posturing or moralistic superiority. The film is as interesting when he's quietly negotiating with the bad guys as when they're chasing him in a helicopter, and that's the way it should be. There's also a terrific score by Bruce Broughton with a creepy four note piano motif, and fabulous stuntwork by Glenn Wilder - the finale atop the train is one of those rare scenes where the actors really look like they are in danger. A remake of the classic 1952 Richard Fleischer/Earl Felton film noir The Narrow Margin, this script isn't quite as clever (in the original the woman is the mobster's widow and there's a clever identity twist), but still has some surprises in store. Produced by Carolco Pictures (They Live, Shocker), with exteriors shot in beautiful British Columbia, this is a bad movie to be in if you're an actor called Walsh - both of them get killed in the first twenty minutes !