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Directed by Tony Scott

Written by Mark Bomback

Starring : Denzel Washington (Frank), Chris Pine (Will), Rosario Dawson (Connie)

The movie concerns a runaway train which by virtue of a series of human failures has managed to get itself on course for a collision which could have disastrous results, seen as the toxic material it is carrying could blow up a small city.  As if this wasn’t bad enough, a trainload of kids learning about railroad ‘safety’ are also in its path. It falls to, soon to be made redundant veteran employee Frank (Washington again teaming up with Scott in yet another train movie!) along with his just on the job cocky sidekick Will, to save the day. This with no help at all from various corporate types whose first priority is ‘the company’. Will the see-it-all veteran and the know-it-all newcomer be able to come to the towns rescue or will they be thwarted by their own everyday problems. Who cares?

This frankly is what is best and worse about the movie.

There is too much screen time wasted in back stories for these characters which are after all only meant to be one dimensional so as not to deflect from the action, as befits a proper B-movie.  In this case the more we know the more bored we become and the less we care. Contrast this with the characters played by Corrigan (always interesting) and Dawson. These are classic B-movie characters whose job is to comment on the action and the two actors do a superb job with their parts.  The B-movie should be simple and there are enough well handled elements here for that, Scott has a good history here. The scenario is set for a literal roller-coaster ride in the grand Hollywood tradition of B-movies and Scott delivers in these basic elements.

The exiting camerawork (swirling shots, quick edits) and bombastic sound achieve this in spades but just when tension is built it falls flat when character exposition is involved. The idea of inserting live news updates is a clever trick to ramp up the excitement while filling in the details without interrupting the action.

Reservations aside there is enough action and excitement to give this one a go, especially in a cinema to really appreciate the sound. Share your views about the Movie Unstoppable.

MoviesCrunch Rating – 7/10

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