Unstoppable

Review by Anthony Morris

Just to get one thing straight right off the bat : the problem with Unstoppable isn't that the rumbling death train this entire film is built around can't be stopped - it's just that the driver basically jumped off without leaving the handbrake on. 

And sure, some train crew are fat, lazy and incompetent, but others get to be played by Denzel Washington and Chris Evans so it all balances out. 

They're established as your typical action movie double act ‑ Denzel is the old hand with two daughters working their way through college by waitressing at Hooters, Evans is the new guy with marriage problems. 

Most importantly, this is their first day together working on the Pennsylvania railroads. Of course, this situation promises nothing more than low‑key bickering until they discover a runaway train barrelling down towards them. 

Back in the control room Rosario Dawson gets to talk to a lot of people over the phone, while out in the real world roughly half the story is told through fake news footage - needless to say there's "the train is still out of control" updates every minute or so in case you nod off.

Director Tony Scott's usual over‑the‑top editing and refusal to let a moment pass without someone reminding us of what's at stake contains all the subtlety of a railway sleeper to the face, but to his credit he actually manages to make what is a high‑stakes but visually unimpressive story feel dramatic.

Even when things do start to get all "action movie" towards the end (it's hardly a spoiler to reveal that Washington and Evans' characters get hands‑on in the efforts to stop the train) things stay largely within the realms of plausibility. 

The result is a working class action movie where a workhorse train trundles through various beat‑up small towns on its way to destroy a run‑down industrial town while working stiffs use their on‑the‑job experience to try and avert disaster. 

So if a 90 minute workplace safety film is your idea of a good time, Unstoppable is the train to board.

3 out of 5

Unstoppable
Australian release: 6th January, 2011
Official Site: Unstoppable
Cast: Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson
Director: Tony Scott