Unstoppable - Review

Unstoppable is an action drama inspired by true events. A runaway train carrying a cargo of toxic chemicals (sounds like a 60's Batman episode) tests experienced engineer "Frank" (Denzel Washington) and his rookie conductor "Will" (Chris Pine) in a race against time. In their own separate train they risk their lives to slow down and control the runaway train before it derails and destroys a large American town. 


Unstoppable is a shameless action movie, laughable at times but still good old fashioned fun. The acting generally is of poor quality, even the fairly decent "Denzel" is never convincing and you can see behind his eyes that he is just reading the words, waiting for the paycheck. He knows what kind of movie he is in. The plot is of course inspired by true events, but still very far fetched with accidents that are so hilariously coincidental that you would imagine a 7 year old cooked it all up. Not that its a negative. Don't get me wrong, its a hugely enjoyable movie, but just don't expect anything grounded in reality. 


Technical goofs are a plenty with many scenes badly edited, for example: a quarter way through the movie the runaway train is heading straight for a horse transport, as the horse's owners fight to get them to safety we cut to a scene with the train in a COMPLETELY different place. The Train also seems to have a life of its own and develops a (Jurassic Park sound effect style) Dinosaur scream that is repeated nearly every time the train comes into shot. The sound guy for this movie must have been in a rush (or on drugs) as this repeated Jurassic scream is pure hilarity and had me curling up in laughter at least 8 times. 

The writing is of a very poor standard, with wisecracks that would could only be found in an action movie. Every character is a stereotype from the Yelling Boss, plucky new recruit to the (unintentionally) comedic Ex Afghanistan U.S Marine who tries to save the day half way through the movie.


I was genuinely impressed with ALL of the action scenes, the film excels itself with the pure theatrical grace and excitement that is found in every second of action. Totally non reliant on CGI (something very rare in this CGI saturated genre) the action is fresh and induces a sense of actual danger. CGI is simply too perfect, when a car crashes in CGI every millimeter of that shot is sculpted and leaves the ensuing catastrophe feeling empty. With real stunt work, there is real consequence and that is where Unstoppable earns big points.


Overall its dumb, badly acted, naively written but the action and pure shamelessness of its plot makes it one of the most enjoyable movies of the year. 3.5/5


Review by Joseph Carter