UNSTOPPABLE

“UNSTOPPABLE” (Denzel Washington, Chris Pine & Rosario Dawson)

I wasn’t too keen on seeing this – the preview seemed to advertise, ‘You’ve seen this film before, you’ve seen Denzel play this character before, so save it for the $3 theatre or HBO’. But fellow critic Alan Smithee told me it was both exciting and humorous, so we decided it would make a good Thanksgiving Day flick. It was – though I’m not as exuberant as Mr. Smithee, basically because it IS another runaway train flick which means numerous useless scenes of trains rolling along their tracks and I HAVE seen Denzel play this character before.
What I thought was a ‘terrorists’ plot for a plot turned out to be erroneous on my part and I was happy to see that the runaway train was an accident, rather than a fiendish ploy by some radical organization or religious sect. The train (777, to his friends & co-workers) is sent on it’s destination to disaster by two numbskull railroad employees. One, (Ethan Suplee) too fat and stupid to know not to leave a moving locomotive; the other (T.J. Miller) too lazy to set the air brakes on a train they’re about to move.
Denzel plays Frank Barnes, a 28 year vet of the railway. He is given the assignment of basically training his replacement, though Frank isn’t ready to retire. Chris Pine (Captain James T. Kirk II, to his friends & co-workers) is Will, the ‘kid’ Frank is forced to show the ropes to as they head out in train 1206 for a routine run.
“Unstoppable” works for 3 reasons – Washington & Pine develop a believable bond as they spend the day getting to know one another after starting off on the proverbial wrong foot / The fact that the runaway train is unmanned rather than being ‘used’ as a weapon made the story realistic / & Kevin Dunn’s Galvin, a corporate dunderhead making all the wrong decisions was easy to dislike (providing a ‘realistic’ villain, though he was just trying to do his job under a stressful situation)
Rosario Dawson played Connie, the person at the helm of the control center and who ultimately over-rides Galvin’s decision by allowing Frank to ‘go after’ train #777 in order to divert a catastrophe.
All-in-all it was an entertaining ride. It wasn’t a great film. It would have been better if Frank’s daughters had bigger boobs (They worked at Hooters!) But other than that, it was a mildly tense, mildly amusing enjoyable experience. The only thing missing was a scene with a television showing ‘The Mask’ and Jim Carrey exalting, “Somebody STOP me!”