At The Theater #43: Unstoppable

Whoever designed the teaser poster for Unstoppable deserves to be fired. Look at it. When I first saw it, all I thought was “Well, that’s going to suck.” The poster screams “GENERIC MOVIE RIGHT HERE!” Because of that, Unstoppable wasn’t even on my list of movies to see as I finish out the year.

But then people started telling me that Unstoppable was really good. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a score of 88, which is pretty damn good. Now that I’ve seen Unstoppable, I agree, it is pretty damn good.

Unstoppable is structured fantastically. This movie should be required viewing in thriller writing classes. The threat of the runaway train continues to escalate throughout Unstoppable, while the chances of stopping the train become progressively worse and the consequences of failure become direr.

Denzel Washington is definitely one of the coolest guys on the planet. It doesn’t seem to matter if he’s playing a corrupt cop, a non-corrupt cop or a motorman; he brings a certain level of coolness to every role he plays. I can’t think of a Denzel Washington movie in recent memory that disappointed me. Inside Man is one of my favorite movies of the past few years. Denzel doesn’t disappoint in Unstoppable.

I’m glad they didn’t go for the romance angle between Rosario Dawson and Denzel Washington’s characters Unstoppable. During the movie, it kind of felt like it was a destination (railroad pun!) they were headed to, which felt a little weird. Rosario Dawson is closer in age to Washington’s character’s daughters than to Washington himself. When his character Frank Grimes started talking about forced early retirement, the possible romance angle seemed even more farfetched.

Alternate endinig to Unstoppable.

This is my second movie this week with Kevin Corrigan in it. No complaints there. But he doesn’t play his usual lowlife in Unstoppable. Instead he plays the Jeff Goldblum of the movie, meaning he’s the science guy who comes through with the plan “that’s just crazy enough to might work” to save the day. Seriously, doesn’t Jeff Goldblum have right of first refusal on any role like this?

Has the casting director never seen Jurassic Park? Independence Day?

Unstoppable is definitely a movie to go out and see right now. To use a tired cliché: it’s Jaws on railroad tracks.