Unstoppable
Rating: 7/10
Cast: Chris Pine, Denzel Washington, Rosario Dawson, Ethan Suplee
Director: Tony Scott
A hero with a buzz cut, a runaway vehicle and the potential for disaster.
Haven't we heard that somewhere before? Well, that and Denzel in another Tony Scott train film too&
In this latest from Tony Scott, Chris Pine stars as Will Colson, a newbie in the rail industry - and one who, according to older work colleagues has gained his position as a conductor on the rails in rural Pennsylvania because of nepotism.
Denzel is Frank Barnes, a long time employee of the rail roads who's seen it all before and is now just doing his job and training Colson.
However, their spiky training run is broken by the news another train's broken loose and thundering on the tracks, complete with a chemical payload and no driver because of an accidental mess up from a fellow employee Dewey (Ethan Suplee).
As the owner of the railway tries to work out how best to avert the disaster of a train ploughing into civilization, Barnes and Colson work with yardmaster Connie (ever dependable Rosario Dawson) to try and save the day.
Apparently inspired by true events, Unstoppable is actually better than the premise makes it sound - and thanks to some restrained directing from Tony Scott, it's actually more watchable than you'd believe.
Sure, there's plenty of swooping, circling aerial camera shots and continuous angled camera moments as the train continues on its path of destruction; but Unstoppable also throws in some decent characters and some commentary about old timers being forced out of jobs for young upstarts who know nothing of the industry.
Granted, Colson and Barnes have emotional baggage (Colson's got family problems - and whaddya know, so does Barnes) but thanks to believable, underplayed performances from both Pine and the ever sage Washington, you find yourself sucked into their world - even if you know exactly how it will play out. With dialogue such as "We're not talking about a train - we're talking about a missile" the whole thing seems as if it could swerve dangerously into over the top out of control hysteria.
However, thanks to Scott's assured leadership, this train stays
firmly on the tracks - and destined for entertainment.
