Like Speed. But on a train.
You may want to take a moment or two to prepare yourself for this. I am about to explain the plot for Unstoppable; Tony Scott's latest mind-bending, ultra complicated psychological thriller. Here we go...
It's about a train. It's going very fast. It won't stop.
And now to tell you about the two conflicted and tortured main characters...
One is a train driver. The other is a train conductor. They are both American.
Ok, enough of the sarcasm. Unstoppable is a film that literally is about a runaway train and nothing else. That's all you need to know. What you see is what you get. And what's wrong with that? Well, nothing actually because it is also great fun. Tony Scott has never been one to make seminal, ground-breaking films like his brother, Ridley (used to do at least). He likes two things; action and Denzel Washington. Both make regular appearances in his films. Often the results aren't great (Deja Vu and Man On Fire don't really serve any purpose) and this can sometimes be down to Scott's epileptic-fit inducing camera work and visual trickery. Sometimes the experience of watching a Tony Scott film is equivelent to picking your TV up and shaking it around whilst watching it. With added strobe lighting.
Thankfully, Unstoppable is his most unfussy, and therefore best, film in a long time. It's expertly made and very enjoyable as a 90-minute slice of popcorn entertainment that you'll forget about 30 seconds after leaving the cinema. Scott hasn't tried to make Citizen Kane. He probably never will. He's made a film about a freight train loaded with deadly chemicals that one character describes as "a missile the size of the Chrysler Building." What more could you want??
The characters and plot are pretty nondescript, as they are in most Tony Scott films. We learn early on, but don't really care, that Frank Barnes (Washington) is a single father of two daughters who's been a train driver since forever, and Will Colson (Chris Pine, from the Star Trek reboot) is a newbie train conductor who's having relationship issues. None of this matters. What matters is that they both unexpectedly, but voluntarily, end up being the ones that have to stop said missile from rocketing straight into the town of Stanton, Pennsylvania and causing much death and destruction. Washington plays the same character he seems to play in every film (a bit grouchy but a hard-ass) and Pine does more or less the same (maybe a bit less grouchy but a bit more of a hard-ass). It's not that their performances are bad, they are fine in fact. It's just that there isn't really much for them to do. As I said, the only thing that really matters in this film is the massive unmanned train intent on blowing everything up.
Scott knows how to handle action better than anyone and his pacing is spot on here (asides from the slightly abrupt ending). There are some great stunts along the way, mainly involving people jumping from a car to the train or vice versa. At times it is genuinely exhilarating - the best scene involves the train going a bit too fast round a corner whilst balancing on one side.
Unstoppable won't change your life and nor is it meant to. But if you're looking for pure escapist cinema to temporarily help you forget about your woes then it is ideal. More like this please Mr Scott.
3½ / 5
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