Movie review : Unstoppable

It is a pity that a movie called Unstoppable and if a high-speed racing down a track , is delivered motionless by the time the half-time mark hits. Unstoppable is not a bad movie – it is just a tedious, an unexciting little film which is competently made, but fails to bring anything new to the table.

On whom can we depend to put a stop to this massive killing train, this “missile the size of the Chrysler Building,” in the threatening words of Rosario Dawson’s station dispatcher? Not the entry-level clods (Ethan Suplee and T.J. Miller) that are ineptitude originally set the train on its fateful track. Surly not their supervisor (Kevin Dunn), a middle-management move on more concerned with impressing his corporate superiors than ensuring proper rail safety. And almost definitely not the parent company’s feckless, golf-playing CEO, whose disaster-containment strategy is dictated purely by stock- price. 

Rosario Dawson and Kevin Corrigan round up the train experts, and are thrown in with a corporate type who is only interested in saving look for the company. An obvious bogeyman for most movies, but when your main opponent is a huge train, everything else is uninteresting faff.

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Denzel’s most formidable enemy in Unstoppable, it turns out, is his own director. As an alleged “old-school” moviemaker, Tony Scott largely eschews the usage of CGI, but he covers almost every other fashionable action-film gimmick, occasionally to revolting effect. When the camera is not shoving about or zooming in and out jarringly, it’s wheeling at breakneck speed across a dolly track; countless circling shots of key dialogue exchanges give the impression that we are listening on these conversations from a helicopter. No static shots are allowed, and cuts are quick and persistent, giving us nary a moment to catch our breath or recover our equilibrium.  

While this review does sound a little negative. It is competently made, and Tony Scott has gratefully abstained from the hyper-cutting and attention-shortage photography of his previous movies. He shows great simpleness in shooting with wider angles, and while his favorite colour palette is intact, it still looks much unlike a Tony Scott joint.

 

The Bollywood-inspired dolly shots and framework shots are interesting, too - though ultimately used too much to stand out as a cool new element. There is no arching over themes, and the movie has a much uncomplicated schedule - to entertain and deliver some firm action. It succeeds on those counts, and it is suitably fun to watch. If only it were an hour shorter.