I’ve been watching very good movies these days, one of them was Unstoppable starring Denzel Washington & Chris Pine. I think maybe because of my age, there were times that I just slept through a movie (remember, Salt?).
Unstoppable was different though, I was wide awake during the course of the movie. PLUS, I was actually sitting straight the whole time and almost screamed at some of the scenes. The movie was exciting, touching, action-oriented and with lots of suspense!
I must admit when I saw the trailer, I said to myself, “why would they make such a movie? It’s just a train who loses its brakes and then what?”. I was quite hesitant actually when my mom invited me to watch. Anyhow, it’s a Denzel Washington movie so I said to myself that I’ll reserve all feedback after we finish watching the movie.
With my brief description of it in the previous paragraph, I’ll try to go a bit deeper so that you will have a sense as to why this movie is truly a must-watch. Unstoppable, is a movie of not only about a runaway train, but it’s a train carrying toxic and dangerous chemicals that is racing towards a city. The train is literally carrying enough hazardous chemicals that it will surely destroy the city when it gets to the point of a curve that will cause the train to derail and have its chemicals spill into a fuel oil tank farm causing the disaster that everyone is trying to avoid.
This is where Denzel Washington (Frank Barnes) and Chris Pine (Will Colson) come in. Denzel Washington portrays a seasoned veteran engineer while Chris Pine is a new hire just 4 months into his position. In the beginning of the movie, there’s obvious friction between the two characters since many of the older workers believe that Colson is not qualified for the position since he’s too young, inexperienced, and they believe he got the position only because of family connections.
However, as soon as they find out about the runaway train, Frank Barnes decides to take it upon himself to try to stop the train, and Colson although hesitant momentarily decides to join Barnes.
It is Rosario Dawson’s character (Connie Hooper) that portrays the yardmaster in the movie. She’s in charge of the trains coming in and out of her station. And it is in fact her yard which the 1 kilometer long runaway train had originated from. So her role is definitely a central role in the movie as well.
The interplay between the characters is masterful and wonderful to watch. The development of each character, their side stories, especially that of Colson is well done by the writer and whoever has done the screenplay in this movie.
The action in the movie is not only constant as soon as we find out that the train has caught speed, has no brakes, and almost has no means of stopping, but it is brilliantly mixed in with great drama and character play as each character including Barnes, Colson, and Hooper all have a great stake in stopping this disaster from happening.
As all great movies often have, the main thrust of this movie is not just the obvious sequences of great suspense and action surrounding the stopping of this 1 km long runaway train, but it is also a story about love, compassion, bravery, teamwork, trust & responsibility.
While both Denzel Washington & Chris Pine were excellent in the movie, it seems that my favorite character in the movie was definitely Rosario Dawson’s character, Connie Hooper. Rosario Dawson really gave the role some great depth and not in one instance did I even realize that this was an actress playing just another role. She really immersed herself in this role, and I think the movie was greatly lifted by her performance. I could feel all her frustrations, happiness, nervousness all throughout the movie. I honestly believe that she deserves at least an Oscar nomination for her role in this movie.
A must-see movie if I may say. Don’t miss this movie, you won’t regret it. Non-stop action, wonderfully made movie, unstoppable indeed.
My Rating for Unstoppable: 4 out of 5 stars
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