Unstoppable
Melbourne Central Hoyts, 17/01/2011
Movie #4 for 2011
You know what’s really big and fast and smashes things apart when it hits them? A runaway train. Surpringly - delightfully – much of the action in Unstoppable seems to be stunts and real-life actual trains actually hitting other real-life things, rather than computer generated explosions. It made a really nice change.
Will (CHRIS PINE, Star Trek) is the rookie train-guy and Frank (DENZEL WASHINGTON) is the jaded pro, three weeks from retirement. They’re the good guys. The bad guy is an unmanned train, under power and speeding towards a big explosion in a populated area. It's up to the good guys to stop the bad guy. That’s pretty much it, plot-wise. Some early attempts to heighten our emotional investment are, mercifully, brief and then it’s all-action all the way.
The script, based on the events of the CSX 8888 runaway train in 2001, is fairly bad, but it’s clear to see where the film deviates from the real story – for an incredible set up there are more than a couple of completely implausible moments (but nothing so stupid as a truck crashing into a Harrier Jump Jet a la Die Hard 4, the benchmark for all stupid stunts). The majority of exposition and explanation is done through news reports, which is effective although eventually repetitive.
For all that, though, the dynamic between Washington and Pine is a good one - they gel quite nicely - and much of the action is quite tense.
*Actual results may vary
