Review of Unstoppable (2010) by Leonor R — 12 Mar 2013

The late director Tony Scott completed his hat trick of planes, trains and automobiles with his final feature film - a tense thriller about two railway workers attempts to stop a mile long locomotive from crashing into a populated area and spilling it's haz mat load all over the place.

Unstoppable is very much in keeping with Scott's previous style in films like Crimson Tide and Top Gun. He is a director very skilled at handling this kind of film rather than the ones where he's stumbled like Domino and The Last Boy Scout.

Denzel Washington, a reliable hand, and Chris Pine are the heroes of the piece, two railroad workers at different stages of their careers but united by family problems. The duo have good chemistry while setting up their characters in the films early going but this isn't allowed to get in the way of some highly dramatic train chasing. Rosario Dawson provides the control room body as is always present to guide and fill in the guys out on the field before the big emotional meet up at the films conclusion.

Unstoppable actually doesn't sound all that exciting on paper but Scott has crafted a succession of action scenes that manage to take a hold of the viewer and become a bit of a nail biter.

Scott was perhaps one of the few action directors still working with the basics of chases and vehicular stunts to create his carnage, rather than falling back on cgi. Unstoppable was the last example of how good he could be. An excitingly friendly movie.