In the great tradition of films about large vehicles that can’t slow down, I am proud to review Unstoppable for you. A movie about a train that can’t slow down and the men who attempt to slow down said train that can’t slow down. This is what happens when someone gives someone else enough money to play with actual trains instead of little toy ones.
That someone is Tony Scott, and he does exactly what you would do with a toy train set as a kid (make it go fast and then blow it up) except with real trains and actual explosives. It was awesome as a child, but the question is does it make for a good movie?
In the great tradition of films about large vehicles that can't slow down, I am proud to review Unstoppable for you. A movie about a train that can't slow down and the men who attempt to slow down said train that can't slow down. This is what happens when someone gives someone else enough money to play with actual trains instead of little toy ones.
That someone is Tony Scott, and he does exactly what you would do with a toy train set as a kid (make it go fast and then blow it up) except with real trains and actual explosives. It was awesome as a child, but the question is does it make for a good movie?{{page_break}}
Supposedly, Unstoppable is based on true events. And, yes, a train has run away before, and, yes, it had to be stopped, but apart from that this true story seems to be stretched just a tiny bit. The "true" story places newcomer conductor Will (Chris Pine) and old timer engineer Frank (Denzel Washington) in the only position to slow down a train full of deadly and explosive chemicals before it hits Scranton, PA where the track curves so sharply that the train will fly off the tracks into some conveniently placed tanks of gasoline. After a few other attempts fail, and corporate greed and inaction brings the train far closer to Scranton than it ever should have gotten, the two of them are the last hope to save the town.
In order to do this they must catch up with the speeding train and attach themselves to it. It all sounds like some very high suspense, but when you think about it it's just two guys in a train racing towards another train. Since trains are on tracks there's really not that much for them to do until they get there. Smartly, director Tony Scott realizes this, and keeps the film short so that you're never simply waiting for something to happen and then injects just enough back story and needless explosions (oxymoron?) to keep thing interesting until the last 20-30 minutes when the action starts to really heat up. Once it does, it's hard not be on the edge of your seat watching the mad dash to stop the deadly train of death. The interplay between the corporate train company and station manager Connie (Rosario Dawson) also allows the film to jump outside of trains every once in a while as well. The key was keeping the film short, which is a challenge many directors have issues with, but is something that Scott is capable of doing.
Short and sweet is great, but what really makes the movie actually enjoyable is the fact that most of it was shot on real trains. Except for a bit of CGI action near the end there is simply a whole lot of awesome train stunts going on, the likes of which we haven't seen since the days of the Western. While I'm sure Denzel wasn't racing along the top of a speeding train it's still impressive to see any man do it, and there's plenty of other great stunts being pulled off throughout. Sprinkle in a liberal dosage of explosions and other excuses to send random vehicles flying through the air and you can easily find yourself enjoy the movie despite the fact that its story starts to unravel and you begin to realize that nothing really happened for the first hour except for a few of those random explosions.
I'm not about to pretend that the Unstoppable does anything groundbreaking or different. Its characters are barely fleshed out cliches, its plot is paper thin and the true story it's based on is almost completely ignored. However, it's a blast to see some train action and it's all done very well by Scott. Unstoppable isn't going to become anyone's favorite action film ever, but considering we don't get much train action anymore, it's a nice break from car chases.
Overall Score: 6.10 – Okay. (6s are just okay. These movies usually have many flaws, didn’t try to do anything special, or were poorly executed. Some will still love 6s, but most prefer to just rent them. Watch more trailers and read more reviews before you decide.)
Unstoppable is a decent enough action film with some great train stunts. Tony Scott smartly keeps it short and sweet so that the cracks in the film never have time to truly form.
