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Chris
Pine and Denzel
Washington star in
Unstoppable,
a movie that’s
marketed as
‘full-throttled
thriller’ but really
putters along from
start to finish in a
movie that will let
you down if you’re
excited to see it
but will keep you
content if you’re
just looking for
something to watch.
Chris Pine stars as
Will, he’s a young
train conducting
rookie who’s
struggling with his
home life and it’s
carrying it over
into his job. He’s
learning on the job
after a little
training and he gets
to learn from a 20+
year train yard
veteran in engineer
Frank (Denzel
Washington.) Frank
is a grumpy veteran
that is part of a
group of older
workers at the yard
being replaced by
rookie union
workers. The two
dudes generally
don’t like each
other, Will was able
to get his job
through some
nepotism, Frank
knows this and
doesn’t like it and
he’s already bitter
about his place in
life anyway. When
the two are
squabbling on their
normal run they get
thrown into a
circumstance that
turns them both into
heroes. Somehow an
unmanned train
filled with
hazardous material
is travelling in
excess of 60 MPH and
is due to crash,
unless the two men
can catch up to it
and stop it. Can
Frank and Will do
the job? Well of
course they can.
It’s based on a true
story and it’s a
movie.
The
main thing that
Unstoppable
does well is action.
The action scenes
are awesome. The
stunts done in the
movie where guys are
hopping on and off
trains and on top of
them are pretty cool
to watch. Other than
that, the acting’s
decent by Pine,
Denzel Washington,
and Rosario Dawson.
The other
role-actors aren’t
great but they do
their jobs. That’s
really where the
perks with
Unstoppable
end.
Tony Scott’s job
with directing this
movie is fine. He
got some cool shots
with his stunts and
everything looks
great. But the
source material
feels like a movie
that should be made
in the 70’s not
something made in
2011. No doubt, it’s
a heroic tale but,
the way Scott told
it is lame. The
movie starts out
with dramatic
footage from around
the train yard for
the first ten
minutes. Anybody
who’s been to a
train yard knows how
hard those dudes
work but they also
know that the place
lacks drama. That’s
a problem with the
movie. It just feels
lame. Other than
that the extras that
were thrown in to
make this story more
compelling in
Scott’s eyes are
clear clichés..
There’s nepotism,
young vs. old,
domestic crisis,
union workers,
hooters, and
anything else you
can think of that an
Englishman thinks of
America. Not great.
The extras on this
disc contain some
decent behind the
scenes footage
including a great
look at how they did
the derailing scene,
another behind the
scenes look that’s a
very long look at
making the movie,
then there’s a round
table with Dawson,
Washington, Pine,
and Scott and a
commentary by Scott.
If you want extras
they’re here and
they’re good if you
liked the movie. If
you didn’t like the
movie well then
you’re probably not
interested in
watching the extras.
Unstoppable
is not unstoppable,
it’s really just a
decent thriller if
you don’t have
anything else to
watch. It’s not the
worst movie that
you’ll see but it’s
not the best either.
Unstoppable
is a forgettable
movie that putters
through from start
to finish. Pine and
Washington did fine
with what they had
to work with but
it’s very clear that
this movie was
doomed to be
mediocre from pretty
much day one.
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