Genre: Action/Thriller
Release Date: 11 November 2010
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Running Time: 100 minutes
Directors: Tony Scott
Producers: Tony Scott, Julie Yorn, Mimi Rogers, Eric McLeod, alex Young
Writers: Mark Bomback
Casts: Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson, Ethan Suplee, Jessy Schram
Plot: Oscar-winner Denzel Washington and "Star Trek"'s Chris Pine teams with action maestro Tony Scott in this non-stop thriller. A massive unmanned locomotive, nicknamed "The Beast" and loaded with toxic cargo, roars through the countryside, vaporising anything put in front of it. A veteran engineer (Washington) and a young conductor (Pine), aboard another train in the runaway's path, devise an incredible plan to try and stop it - and prevent certain disaster in a heavily populated area.
THE VERDICT
As an appatizer, I would like to clarify that this yet another train movie is not a sequel of last year's The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. It is a standalone, separate movie yet again about train which itself is based on the real life event of CSX 8888 incident in Ohio back in the year 2001. An unmanned freight train cruised at the speed of 47 miles per hour. There isn't an engineer on-board, ran without control for two hours and spread panic as the train carries hazardous material. Hence, the real life event inspires Tony Scott's Unstoppable.
In Unstoppable, two different individuals came on board a dangerous mission to stop a wild rampaging train that carries molten phenol at the speed of 70 m.p.h. when an engineer (Suplee) thought he had everything control. But he is deadly wrong, the train despite on idle brake system, the train speed away. Frank Barnes (Washington) is a train engineer with 28-years of experience facing a forced early retirement and had not-so-cool relationship with his daughters. He teams up with a young rookie conductor, Will Coulson, who has a rocky marriage. They initiate a dangerous attempt to bring the train to halt after the train company's strategic contigency failed.
Unstoppable has a basic and simple structure plot that deals about an unmanned runaway train. Instead of the typical cliche storyline, it does not involve or even need any villain. It beats my expectation initially that it might have something to do with terrorists. I know that's predictable but I have been unaware of the nature of the adaptation. Despite not having any terrorists, the movie still works. The structure is so layback and simple that it does not need any extra cerebelum power to think about the plot, merely just sit back and enjoy. However, Unstoppable still requires some intelligence as the brilliant storyline to deal with form the technical aspect of how train works.
Tony Scott's movie like this always have some signature mark on his movies. Unstoppable has no much different at all. Unstoppable is unique because Tony inserted some news footage to go along the plot. As always, the story is presented perfectly from several points of view. We have Barnes and Colson in one end representing the men in action, yard master Connie Hooper (Dawson) on the other for issues dealer while the corporate bureucracy is represented from Oscar Galvin's (Dunn) VP position. The consistency of pace allows each end to communicate to each other and allows the flow of action to go on place all the way.
Looks like Tony Scott has did so much improvement over his last movie. Pelham 1 2 3 is an enjoyable in the beginning but suffers blatant story towards the end. The ending of that movie is unnecessary but luckily Unstoppable did not shard the same fate. Rather, the story is much organized, subtle and focused. There are few gags to laugh about but the tone of the movie constantly getting you on the edge of the seat. I would say, such edge thrilling movie is certainly very intense and for that, Tony Scott has returned to his magical touch like in Man On Fire and The Manchuarian Candidate.
Thank God, Chris Pine did not spills his talent on the wrong place. Mr Kirk is certainly very comfortable in taking the role of condcutor Will Colson. Denzel Washinton is also magnificent as always. The partnership form a great chemistry in between them. Cinematography is nevertheless looks great. Unstoppable is a great film and perhaps one of the best ever done by Tony Scott in the recent years. Forget about Pelham 1 2 3, this one is so on the spot, so action-coordinated and never fails to get you on the edge of the seat. Watch Unstoppable with caramel popcorns on your hand and get blown away.
THE RATING
Story - 3.5 stars
Casts - 4.5 stars
Cinematography - 4.5 stars
Effects - 4.0 stars
OVERALL - 4.0 stars
GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 16.1
UNSTOPPABLE is now showing on the cinemas nationwide unstoppably.
