Tony Scott and Denzel Washington have a long and detailed history together. Unstoppable marks their fifth collaboration, and it is a good film to commeorate that milestone with.
After two railroad workers, Dewey (Ethan Suplee) and Gileece (T.J Miller) make the mistake of not being able to transfer a train off of a track, leaving it unmanned. At first, it's not seen as a big deal, as the train is not moving at a high speed. Their boss, Connie Hopper (Rosario Dawson) soon realizes the severity of the situation once the train picks up speed. Connie soon finds out that not only were the air brakes not engaged, but the train is under power and gaining speed. To make matters worse, she gets a call from the railroad company's boss finding out that there is an alarming quantity of hazardous materials on board.
Enter veteran engineer Frank Barnes (Denzel Washington) and rookie conductor Will Colson (Chris Pine), who are on the same tracks doing routine work. It is the first time these two men have worked together. Colson is already having a bad day by missing a court date to resolve a restraining order served on him by his ex-wife. When they receive a message from their dispatcher about the situation, the two men manage to just barely get out of the way of the runaway train on time. After that, they volunteer to derail the train and risk their lives to hopefully avoid a disaster, which is immient since the train is headed towards a highly populated area.
Unstoppable is a pretty entertaining thrill ride. The last 45 minutes are pure exhillaration. It takes a little while to get going, but once it does, it moves along at a brisk pace. Director Tony Scott has a reputation for his manic style of film making, so a film about a runaway train is right in his skill set. I couldn't imagine anyone else directing this, he is too perfect of a match. Washingtion and Pine both turn in good performances, infusing their characters with a surprising amount of depth of as well. Washingtion, as usual, really gets into his character and no matter what style of film he is doing, he gives it 110%.
Unstoppable is a pretty solid film. It is thrilling, exciting, and pretty well-made. The entire cast gives quality performances and entirely believeable in their roles. When it comes to Scott/Washington films, I would ranks this somewhere in the middle, right below last summer's "The Taking Of Pelham 123". It's not the most spectacular film by any means, but it is worth seeing and is a quality film that is worth your money.
3.5/5 Stars
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