Unstoppable

During my review of The Town, I said that heist films are a genre that usually get a thumbs up from the audience. If done right, of course. However, Tony Scott’s last film, his unadvised remake of quasi-heist 70’s classic The Taking of Pelham 123, was a disaster, with as much direction as a broken set of railway points. The train bug obviously got into Scott though as he now points his camera in the direction of another popular set of films, that of the runaway train species. Well, I say popular, but there haven’t been too many of them over the last 25 years or so, with most of them being TV movies. The main problem is the daddy of the genre, Andrey Konchalovskiy's Runaway Train, is not only the best of the lot, but was also one of the best films of the 1980’s. Any subsequent release is always going to struggle when held up for comparison. However, whereas that film was cold, brutal with a score that was terrifying on its own, Scott goes the opposite direction with Unstoppable, giving us a film that is full of bright colours, the usual crazy Scott editing and a pumping sound track. All of this blasting past in the blink of an eye during the customer friendly short running time. The unstoppable train in this instance is an unmanned half mile long freight train which two railway employees (Denzel Washington and Chris Pine) attempt to stop before a major disaster occurs. Rosario Dawson is the yardmaster trying to keep on top of the situation, whilst her boss (Kevin Dunn) concentrates more on the bottom line and the reputation of the train company, rather than the attempts of the two men to stop the train. The first thing to note is that this film has many faults. The characters are all base stereotypes (with the exception of Dawson, which helps her take the acting honours), the script has some dodgy coincidences and, frankly, despite the title, you already know how it’s going to end. However, it all still works somehow. Scott tones down his direction so you can actually see what is happening for once, there are a couple of great action sequences, the CGI is kept to a minimum and a nice line of humour is kept tight throughout the film. Overall? Disengage brain and sit back and enjoy.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
This isn’t Scott at full throttle, but it’s a quick and cheerful Friday night entertainer. Rating: 7/10.