Review – The Sleeping Car

The Sleeping Audience. At this point (1990), David Naughton appears to have resigned himself to the fate of cheesy horror movie actor, the result of starring in An American Werewolf in London years earlier. Here he plays a recently-divorced journalist who's trying to rebuild his life by going back to school. His financial situation forces him into the only digs he can afford to rent: an old sleeping car (so it isn't just a catchy title) possessed by the evil spirit of a train engineer who really really hates people who have sex. Fortunately for the ghost (and unfortunately for the rest of us), our hero and his guests take frequent sex breaks. Even if I was easily impressed by cheap nudity, I still would have hated this picture based solely on the wretched dialogue. All the characters communicate exclusively in a painful series of sophomoric "snappy quips" too stupid to entertain the average sophomore. Jeff Conaway's delivery is particularly galling, as he adds a pathetic taste of Kenickie to the already-miserable writing. Wish I'd skipped it