Yes, I know it's not very professional to review a movie that's been out nearly a week, but cut me some slack. Unless they pay me to do this, I'm not getting in on preview night.
There aren't a whole lot of what could be called "blue-collar" action films out there, which is odd, since it's one of the most blue-collar genres out there. Red-blooded American males just love them some stuff gettin' blowed up real good, and I'm no exception. But the characters in the films aren't usually average Joes with real problems. They're hard-bitten cops on the brink of retirement, or wrongly accused doctors of a certain age. A rail yard is one of the least likely places to host an action flick.
And yet, that's just what we get in Unstoppable, the latest film from Tony Scott. Again, he teams up with Denzel Washington (as in Pelham 1-2-3 and Man on Fire), who plays Frank, an older, wiser and yet decidedly amiable rail worker who gets assigned to work with Will (Chris Pine), the token newbie with family connections that the old guard resent. Predictably, they don't get along at first, as they both have problems at home that neither of them are willing to talk about. But there is little in the way of friction between them, as Frank generally laughs off Will's attitude.
What brings them together as a team is the fact that there's a half-mile-long unmanned train barreling toward the town of Stanton, Pennsylvania that is full of toxic chemicals. Should it hit a certain elevated curve while going too fast, it will tip over, crashing into some rather unfortunately placed oil storage tanks and essentially wiping the town off the map in a giant fireball. And caught in the middle is Connie (Rosario Dawson), who frantically plays damage control in the station's command center.
The film is "Inspired By True Events," which is a phrase that lacks the credibility of "Based on a True Story." And there are some liberties taken with the facts, to be sure. Still, the thing that sets this film apart from standard action fare is the fact that Tony Scott knows how to build suspense. And the best way to build suspense is with uncertainty. Most action films have know-it-all protagonists who always have the solution to every single problem they're confronted with. Here, Scott is not afraid to show us that nobody has the slightest idea of how to stop the train. They are literally flying by the seat of their pants, and any and all ideas they come up with may or may not work. If they do, great, but if they don't, an entire city faces fiery doom. It may seem like a trifling thing, but having flawed characters helps with the suspension of disbelief. We connect with them and empathize with them instead of just being dragged along for the ride.
Then again, action films aren't ultimately about the characters. They're all about the roller-coaster ride the characters go on. And this ride is a lot of fun. You can't really go wrong in the action department when you've got a 70-mile-per-hour missile full of toxic chemicals barreling toward a suburb with no one at the controls. As expected, the film is big in the special effects department, with cabooses getting torn to smithereens, fire trucks getting pulverized and a near miss with a couple of horses. All of this is captured in mock-news footage, adding a sense of realism, as reporters are mere feet away from disaster at any given moment.
Unstoppable certainly isn't a perfect film. It wanders off into pretty schmaltzy territory at the end, which takes away much of the impact the previous hour-and-a-half. However, it's one of the better action films I've seen in a long time. It takes a pretty far-out premise and makes it, if not genuine, than certainly believable. Not to mention, a lot of fun.
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