With news coming in yesterday that Tony Scott was mulling over three possible projects for his next film, it seems as good a time as any to have a look at the one he’s currently finishing up. “Unstoppable” is a big budget thriller due this November, which, like Scott’s last film “The Taking of Pelham 123,” stars Denzel Washington as an ordinary schlub who has to deal with a crisis involving a train.
This time, Washington plays an experienced train engineer, who’s teamed with a rookie conductor (Chris Pine, in his first big role since “Star Trek”), but an ordinary day turns dramatic when an unmanned train full of toxic chemicals starts speeding down the tracks. The pair must race to stop it before it hits a curve and derails, threatening an entire town.
Considering the director, it all looks unsurprisingly high-octane and, well, Tony Scott-like, even if we’re still not sure how much tension can be squeezed out of one train chasing another train along a straight line for 90 minutes. Washington might as well be asleep he’s played this role so many times, but Chris Pine seems like he’s carried over his Captain Kirk charisma, and the pair seem to have decent chemistry together. There’s also a strong supporting cast, with the likes of Rosario Dawson, Ethan Suplee, T.J. Miller and someone we think might be Kevin Corrigan all serving as tech support/comic relief.
We’re not expecting “True Romance,” or even “Enemy of the State” from this one, but the clip suggests it might be a passable programmer to take your dad to over Thanksgiving. In the long term, though, we’ll probably stick with Andrey Konchalovskiy’s underrated “Runaway Train” for our track-based thrills. And it’s not pretentious to say that, because it’s got Eric Roberts in it. [/Film]
Wow, that's potent. Based on a TRUE STORY one tag line says. Movies (I've said before) are vehicles that we, as viewers, take to enjoy for their vicarious thrills. To fully enjoy the thrills, the movie has to have some things: charismatic movie stars, a compelling story and a movie directed with skill. Lightening in a bottle. If the trailer is to be believed, it looks like they may have done this.