BLOGS07 | 2010-12-02
Unstoppable (PG-13) 98 min.A film starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pine and Rosario Dawson and directed by Tony Scott, who also directed The Last Boy Scout, Crimson Tide and Enemy of the State.
DT: You'd think that a runaway train movie with the title "Unstoppable" would indicate that the efforts of the film's characters to stop the runaway train would be in vain but you'd be wrong. When you think about it, no train is unstoppable. There is no train in the world that can't be stopped. The trick is how you stop it and this is what the movie is about. This film should have been titled "Hard To Stop" which sadly sounds like the title of a Steven Segal vehicle. I'm not ruining the plot of the film if I tell you that Denzel and Chris are going to try to stop a runaway train. This is why you'll go to see this film and this is why this film is only 98 minutes long. There're not a lot of ways to stop a train.
DM: There are exactly zero plot points in this movie that you could give away that people won't already have figured out from the get go. This is one cliche after another in movie-making, and there's nothing original here, so giving away plot is nearly impossible.
DT: Coming up with a plot much different than the one here would be about as easy as steering a train.
DM: If you think about it, how many different plots could you have that include an actual runaway train?
DT: The movie's poster states that it is based on true events. This probably means that while the exact story you are about to watch is fictional, all of the individual events in the story are true. Here is a list of true events that are in this film:
Railroad employees have purchased and eaten doughnuts.
Children have traveled by train.
Trains have run on tracks.
Trains have rolled along on their own.
Some people in the railroad business have been smarter than others.
Trains have carried toxic cargoes.
People have lived, and continue to live, near railroad tracks.
Mix these and other true events together and you get "Unstoppable: The Story of a Stoppable train."
DM: Yes, there was indeed quite a bit of poetic license when it came to making this movie and its "based on true events." It's kind of like me building a suspense movie around last night's supper. The fact is, we ate supper. The movie version then has four masked men invading my home while we dine. Based on a true event? yes. A true story? Not by a long shot. With that said, I gotta tell you that it is kind of a fun movie, despite the fact that I do not enjoy the hand-held camera feel that movies like to present these days. Even though a kindergartner could tell you what is going to happen next, the fun is getting there, and Denzel Washington always makes that a joy.
DT: Yes, watching Denzel and Chris's characters deal with a rogue engine was enjoyable, unless you are allergic to jerky, sometimes zoom-happy handheld camera work. While it's supposed to give you that "You are there" feel, it sometimes is too much and gets annoying. One of the worst examples of this would be "Cloverfield."
All in all, this is a decent little action movie and would make a good rental on a snowbound afternoon.
Final score:
DT: 64, DM: 63