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Grade • A
DVD • Post-apocalyptic movies are so common these days ("The Maze Runner," "The Giver," "Divergent," "The Hunger Games") that "Saturday Night Live" brilliantly skewered the genre last week with an ad for "The Group Hopper." Bong Joon-ho's "Snowpiercer," however, is an apocalypse unlike any other.
On a frozen Earth, the only remnants of humanity ride a train running an endless loop around the globe — with the rich riding in luxury up front, and the poor struggling for scraps in the rear. The tail-section passengers revolt, with the tough Curtis ("Captain America's" Chris Evans) a reluctant leader.
A motley band, which includes an electronics expert (Song Kang-ho) and his clairvoyant daughter (Ko A-sung), works its way toward "the sacred engine," battling stormtroopers led by the officious Minister (Tilda Swinton) and finding nasty surprises in every car. Bong, who made the Korean monster movie "The Host," stuns in his English-language debut, blending action, science fiction and sly social commentary.
The cast (including Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, John Hurt and Ed Harris) is powerful, with Evans quietly showing he's got the chops outside the Marvel universe. —
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