A madcap addition to the comic-book-derived movies that have dominated cinematic summer fare.

| Mar 28, 2017

That rare experience you don't get to have much in the summer anymore, a loud, clanging, original action flick that's grabbing you by the lapels and yelling in your ears.

| Sep 22, 2016

It's a wicked, violent parable, and one of the only movies of the summer worth talking about after the credits roll.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 2, 2015

"Snowpiercer" warms the heart, but doesn't penetrate it.

| Jan 2, 2015

Fueled by implausibility, and for a good portion of the ride much better for it, Bong-Joon Ho's Snowpiercer posits a nonstop, Earth-encircling train containing the microcosmic survivors of a society killed off by a global warming-induced deep freeze.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 2, 2015

This is a dark, but deeply beautiful movie, punctuated by edge-of-your-seat thrills and unexpected laughs.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 2, 2015

Once Mr. Bong sets his monorail in motion the movie assumes an irresistible momentum, accelerated by nonstop mayhem, gallows humor and an immersive visual style that possesses a heady sense of the steam-punk Apocalypse.

| Jan 2, 2015

This is powerful stuff, and all the more so for its straightforwardness.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 2, 2015

There's a righteous savagery to this movie that's almost but not quite obscured by the lushness of its imagined world.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 30, 2014

It is far from flawless -- there are too many longeurs and lapses of logic that impeded its progress along the way -- but it is alive with ideas and imagination which see it across the occasional piece of imperfect track.

| Jul 31, 2014

It's so hard to describe how amazing Snowpiercer is without giving away everything that makes it amazing.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 23, 2014

It's stylish and smart -- a big, honking metaphor, yes, but an effective one and a relevant one.

| Jul 18, 2014

You couldn't ask for a better metaphor for hell on Earth than what Bong Joon-ho has wrought with Snowpiercer: constant forward momentum while getting absolutely nowhere, suffering all the while.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 17, 2014

Snowpiercer feels both heightened and grounded, allegorical yet familiar, able to be experienced. The confined space in no way inhibits tension or excitement, or a sense of forward momentum. It's a film not to be missed.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 17, 2014

Violent, often absurd, but full of brilliant surprises.

| Jul 14, 2014

The future is miserably dystopian as usual in this apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, but at least it's thoughtful, stylishly crafted, high-speed misery that keeps on hurtling relentlessly forward -- even though there's nowhere to go.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 7, 2014

An object of blunt force and breath-catching beauty, Snowpiercer plays what-if with a familiar doomsday scenario: What if Noah's ark never found dry land again?

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 6, 2014

It's a downbeat spectacle. But very good, unforgettably bizarre, original filmmaking and adventurously explored ideas can leave you feeling high, especially when you don't know quite how it's been pulled off.

| Jul 6, 2014

As with The Host, the political satire is teased out gradually as the story progresses and never intrudes on one's enjoyment of the movie's richly imagined world.

| Jul 6, 2014

A rococo exercise in mayhem, boldfaced allegory and ramped-up chaos. It's a summer movie with a social conscience.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 2, 2014