Denzel Washington's back on track in 'Unstoppable'
Having limped out of the station with "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott got themselves a bigger train and a better script and have delivered one of the better movies of the year.
"Inspired by true events" (a 2001 incident in Ohio, apparently), "Unstoppable" is exactly as advertised, a full-throttle thriller that, while technically accomplished, is coupled with two almost quaint basic ingredients: The primal, visceral power of cinema-as-amphetamine. And the choo-choo train.
That "Unstoppable" will be compared to "Speed" is inevitable - the basic ingredients are an out-of-control vehicle and a pair of courageous people. But "Unstoppable" is better than that 1994 film, because its performances and characters are better: Washington is as likable as he's ever been as Frank Barnes, veteran railroad man; Chris Pine shows "Star Trek" was no fluke as Will Colson, the relative new guy whose family connections spark resentment among older colleagues.
Frank and Will are going about a rather routine day when an unmanned train towing 10 carloads of toxic chemicals is accidentally sent barreling though southern Pennsylvania. They will, shall we say, track it down.
One of the train cars might well be carrying cheese, which director Scott has no reservations about serving up, at least visually. Although the centerpiece of the film is "a missile the size of the Chrysler building," as train dispatcher Connie Hooper (Rosario Dawson) puts it, Scott insists on recurrent computer enhancements of the train, as if to imbue it with evil. It's distracting. So is the sense of a tiny computerized town being endangered by a CGI train, during the film's climactic moments.
The people, though, are always life size - indie vet Kevin Corrigan does a hilariously dry turn as a federal inspector who by happenstance turns up in Connie's office, and knows everything she needs to know. All audiences need to know is that "Unstoppable" is smart, and a ride.
Back story: Denzel's game of trick or train
Denzel Washington is afraid of heights, but that doesn't stop him from running along the top of a speeding railroad car in his new movie, "Unstoppable."
"He tricked me," insists the two-time Oscar winner, referring to filmmaker Tony Scott, with whom he's worked on five action movies, including last year's "The Taking of Pelham 123."
Scott initially asked Washington to run across a low platform train car made to look like the top of a train while they were filming in Pennsylvania last year. When Washington became comfortable with the car's movement, Scott switched the stake bed for an actual train car rigged with a harness and pulley system, and set Washington loose atop the 25-foot freight car. For added tension, the filmmaker brought in helicopters to swoop around him.
While Washington got to run atop the train cars, co-star Chris Pine ("Star Trek") got a chance to do some stunt work as well. In a scene where his character tries to attach two cars while the train is moving, he is caught in the backdraft of a grain storm when one of the cars is damaged. Instead of grain, the filmmakers used Sugar Puffs and potato flakes.
"Who knew cereal could be such a pain," recalls Pine, with mock exasperation.
- Entertainment News Wire
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