Email
Print
FeedMovie Review: Unstoppable
Films opening this week:
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Eastern Hills Dipson
Morning Glory - Maple Ridge; Amherst Dipson; Market Arcade Dipson; Elmwood, Transit, Galleria, Quaker, Hollywood Regals; Flix
Skyline - Maple Ridge; Market Arcade Dipson; Elmwood, Transit, Galleria, Quaker, Hollywood Regals; Flix
Unstoppable - Maple Ridge; Market Arcade Dipson; McKinley Mall Dipson; Elmwood, Transit, Galleria, Hollywood Regals; Flix
Sometimes it's best for thrillers to pit their heroes against a clock rather than some evil villain. The clock scenario generally contains situations you as a viewer can relate to, like regular people—in the wrong place at the wrong time—who have to risk themselves for the safety of thousands. This is exactly what Tony Scott’s newest work Unstoppable is, a test of the mettle and courage of ordinary people. Two rail drivers/conductors attempt to stop a half-mile-long train carrying explosive materials from derailing in Stanton, PA and causing the greatest disaster the state has ever seen. Inspired by a true story, Scott’s style of cutting back and forth to multiple locales, infusing a high octane score, and adding expository shots throughout the duration to show all angles of the potential catastrophe at hand keeps the tension level high.
Ethan Suplee and T.J. Miller play their usual typecast screw-ups, this time as lazy unionized employees whose corner-cutting unleashes a deadly missile into oncoming main rail traffic, endangering tons of customer product, numerous rail workers, and a full train of elementary students. Shift supervisor Connie (Rosario Dawson) suggests derailing the runaway train early on in empty farmland, but VP Galvin (Kevin Dunn) will hear none of it, creating the harrowing story we're about to watch.
Scott and screenwriter Mark Bomback do their best to humanize leads Denzel Washington’s Frank and Chris Pine’s Will. Will is a rookie waiting for news on a restraining order that has been keeping him from his wife and son, while Frank is a 28-year veteran who knows the job like the back of his hand and sometimes lets it take over his life, leaving his family by the wayside. It’s the perfect combination of confident youth versus embittered experience, as they get past their grievances to prevent a horrible tragedy, shoving petty generalizations out the window.
While Unstoppable seems just as generic an action/thriller as Scott’s last film, the remake of The Taking of Pelham 123, it somehow works much better. Not quite as effective as recent work like Man on Fire or Déjà Vu, it is similar in style and orchestration, as all of his movies have been following his earlier straightforward films such as Top Gun. I really enjoyed the back and forth between Dawson and Dunn, while Miller and Suplee have the right blend of stupidity and bad luck, adding some necessary comic relief.
Scott, pushing 70 now, has truly embraced all that new technology makes possible in cinema. Throughout all the fast edits, swelling music, and blatant heart string tugging, he never loses sight of the characters’ humanity or the direness of the situation. Pine and Washington play their roles with a level of compassion and authenticity that most genre films of this ilk in Hollywood don’t bother with. How much of this is actually true is unknown to me, but even if it's only that a runaway train was once loose in Pennsylvania, it inspired an utterly thrilling and effective film.
Unstoppable 7/10
photography:
[1] Denzel Washington stars as a veteran locomotive engineer who helps devise an incredible plan to try and stop a runaway train—and prevent certain disaster in a hieavily populated area. Photo credit: Robert Zuckerman. TM and ©2010 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.
[2] Denzel Washington and Chris Pine race the clock to prevent disaster in a highly populated area. Photo credit: Robert Zuckerman. TM and ©2010 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.
