Veteran railroad engineer Frank Barnes (Denzel Washington) and newly qualified conductor Will Coulson (Chris Pine) take it upon themselves to chase down the runaway train and save it from decimating the town in which they live. At the start of the film you’re greeted with the announcement that it’s “Based on real events”and it would seem, from reading up said events after viewing the film, it’s rather more loosely based than it would have audiences believe. Sure, there was an incident with an unmanned train, but it occurred in Ohio rather than Pennsylvania, and by the sounds of things, it was much less dramatic than depicted here. For instance, the train didn’t exceed speeds over 50mph and there’s no mention of cars flipping over. But that wouldn’t have been sufficiently cinematic for Mr. Scott. From the look and tone of the film, this is unmistakably a Tony Scott project. There are a few moments of madness and there’s a strong sense that he’s not comfortable with the camera staying still for more than a second, but even with that being the case, this is in many ways a much more restrained effort than many of his previous films. It’s easy to see why Scott has favoured working with Denzel Washington over the years. The actor has always given solid performances, as he’s adept at portraying the affable everyman and bringing a real sense of quality and believability to projects that perhaps seem beneath him. Indeed, there’s a strong sense that he deserves much better material than what he’s presented with here, but he’s always completely convincing and certainly doesn’t phone in his performance. His work is complemented well by Pine, who’s showing that he has the potential to become a bankable star in his own right. Whilst Washington and Pine are both great in the lead roles, those on the periphery aren’t really given much to work with and seem to be little more than exposition devices. Rosario Dawson does her best in a role that’s not a million miles away from Washington’s in The Taking Of Pelham 123, and Kevin Dunn is suitably dastardly as Galvin, the company head trying to minimise losses. The exposition is really quite ridiculous at times. It’s like the filmmakers have no faith at all in the audience’s intelligence, as the majority of the scenes not involving Pine or Washington seem to be there just to remind you of how high the stakes are or to explain in great detail exactly what’s happening at any given moment. It’s like being repeatedly hit over the head with a big exposition stick. Other frustrating contrivances include having Barnes’ daughters play Hooters waitresses to act as an excuse to have scantily clad ladies on screen, because, obviously, such things are a necessity. Even with the numerous faults, it’s an entertaining and exciting film when it remains focussed on Washington and Pine. When it deviates and cuts away to peripheral characters and news reports, it loses focus and momentum, drawing attention away from the far more interesting material at the film’s core. It’s a shame, then, that there seems to be a lack of confidence in the story, as there is some great material. It’s just buried under a lot of gimmickry and exposition.
title: “Unstoppable Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-08-20” author: “Charlotte Johnson”
Being a Tony Scott film, this isn’t just any runaway train, but a half-mile long freighter filled with deadly chemicals. Or, as one character sensationally puts it, “A MISSILE THE SIZE OF THE CHRYSLER BUILDING!” Before all that, we’re introduced to the cast. Chris Pine plays young rookie train driver Will Colson, while Washington is a seasoned railroad professional called Frank Barnes. Rosario Dawson is Connie, the voice of reason in the control room, and Kevin Dunn plays a corporate villain who cares more about more about protecting his expensive train than the town it’s about to obliterate. Due to a mixture of negligence and bad luck, what begins as a freighter coasting out of control quickly becomes a high-speed train on the rampage, and after several abortive attempts to bring it back under control go awry, it’s left to blue-collar heroes Barnes and Colson to wrestle the beast to a halt. It’s in moments of conversation where Unstoppable really falters. At no point does Scott’s camera keep still, and even incidental scenes – someone talking on a phone, or Ethan Suplee eating a pie – are captured with the same epic, sweeping shots. It’s as though Unstoppable’s makers were terrified of its audience losing interest, and the result is distracting in the extreme. Mark Bomback’s leaden script doesn’t help, either. It feels the need to explain all events in mind-numbing detail, either through lengthy exposition from resident experts, or via computer graphics helpfully provided by Fox News reporters. Unstoppable is shot, scripted and acted with a heightened sense of melodrama that often borders on the surreal. Ethan Suplee is marked out early on as the incompetent, gluttonous fool who lets the train off the leash (and to ram the point home, his face is later shown plastered all over Fox News with the words “Negligent clot” or similar emblazoned beneath), and we can tell Kevin Dunn is evil because he wears a suit and shouts a lot. Denzel Washington’s Frank, by contrast, is unfailingly virtuous and wise. He can gauge the sum length of 25 train carriages at a glance, and his predictions on other rail-related matters are never, ever wrong. One of Unstoppable’s most common phrases is, in fact, “Frank’s right,” which would probably serve as a better name for the film. Admittedly, there are moments where Unstoppable is genuinely gripping. The $100 million budget manifests itself in some spectacular practical stunts that a more financially austere film would have probably tackled with CGI, which I won’t spoil by describing here. But Unstoppable slips far too easily into Hollywood thriller cliché to really satisfy. Its salt of the earth heroes all have woman troubles, wayward daughters or a few days until retirement, and there’s a potentially suicidal plan that might just work. As a piece of multiplex entertainment, Unstoppable is enjoyable enough, but for both Tony Scott and Denzel Washington, it’s familiar, unchallenging territory. In a film that tries to hard to thrill the audience with lots of shouting, hyperactive camerawork and noise, it was, ironically, this single flash of incidental joy that had me on my feet, cheering. Go, Unstoppable badger!
