Unstoppable [2010]

A train carrying some hazardous chemical becomes a runaway – and it’s up to Rosario Dawson, Chris Pine and Denzel Washington to stop it!


I have to start my review by saying this is one of the most action packed but downright boring films I have ever seen. I was impressed with how much was going on – but I was also equally amazed how little I felt any tension or concern. Though the train is a runaway and can’t seem to be stopped – it is in fact on a track. So, it’s not like it can make a sudden turn and trick everyone – and cause further tension – we know it’s headed toward the town of Stanton – and once there the bend in the track will probably make it derail – though this information seems like it should’ve been introduced sooner – it felt tacked on to further the “scare”.


Speaking of which – there were characters along the tracks who could’ve been included to naturally raise the tension level of the audience. Some town cops decided to take shots at the brakes or something – only for us to find out later that they were shooting right next to the gas tank! Wouldn’t that have been a nice scare! BUT they showed the train moving up the tracks – then suddenly cops start shooting at it – then we are told later what they were doing. Build that shit up! That’s your job as s director!


The bulk of the film was watching the train go up the track – and watching people reactions to it and talking on the radio or on the phone – as well as “news footage”. I wish I was kidding – but I’m not – the film was b-o-r-i-n-g because of these elements... This film felt tantamount to cheap sci-fi films of the 50’s & 60’s where the film was padded with stock footage of military action, planes flying and atomic bombs blowing up – but in the case of this film a train going up the track.


There was nothing wrong with the acting by anybody in the film – the acting was just what you needed – but the vehicle that this acting was brought to us in was dull. The direction was dull – it reminded me of the action in Iron Man 2 where you saw a whole mess of close-up face reaction of the men in the suits. Watching people’s eyes widen and drop their jaws – isn’t compelling as watching stuff blow up and near misses – and in a runaway train film that’s what you are looking for.


The film being based on a true story – should not stop you from playing Hollywood all over this film! You need a plane landing on the tracks - the train being taken over by a ghost of a Russian spy – or some kid putting a penny on the track which makes the train wobble and looks like it will fall over. SOMETHING PLEASE!! A little conflict twist would’ve improved this film a great deal!


They introduce the concept that there was a school on a field trip on another train – but just as you started to think – the main conflict will be these little kiddies and the runaway train – but then they decided to get those kids off the tracks almost immediately – which is responsible – but not Hollywood enough!


The film was just okay – but after it was done – I could’ve been just as complete of a person not having seen it and spending that time on YouTube. It was just boring – not stupid – not insulting – and action packed with trains moving – FAST. I tried showing some fake concern and getting into it by rooting on the train – to see if it was my attitude – but I ended up laughing at myself. I truly like Tony Scott and Denzel Washington working together – but this film just didn’t do for me at all.


I’m giving this film an average rating for being boring – 3/5.

Star Trek [2009]

Set phasers on action! J.J. Abrams take on Star Trek is indeed more accessible to the masses – while remaining true to the original Star Trek canon – and also recreating it for this generation. Makes sense? Now, was never much of a Star Trek fan growing up – so please forgive me if I get this wrong…

This movie is more true to the original radio show version of Star Trek when it was called Buck Rodgers – and later adapted into cartoon form called Duck Rodgers – then later turned into a Charlton Heston film about apes – and later several thousand versions of a TV show. Seriously, everybody – it’s Star Trek – there’s Captain Kirk, Spock, Bones, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov, Scotty and Kenny… I mean the red shirt guys. They go into space – meet a bad guy – and eventually defeat the bad guy. Star Trek!

What I really appreciated was how they used a few of the stale story elements that frustrated me about Star Trek to make a more interesting story – namely time travel. It always confused me why Trek seemed more interested in the past rather than having adventures in the future – so they introduced time travel to go back and talk to whales and stuff. Time travel in this film is used as more of an accident and an opportunity to be able to reboot Star Trek from the beginning without discounting everything that went on in the previous films or television series.

There was also butt loads of action – plenty of which seemed to fit into the story – some of which seemed like it was there in order to fill a void. The action was fast paced and somewhat memorable – and I do appreciate heavy doses of action in my summer action films. The only complaint I had with it was the shaky cam – the new staple in action films. It gives you a sense that what’s happening is happening in such an exciting way that that it’s tough to keep up – but you also draw the line of it giving you little to focus on and actually take in.

As for the casting – I guess everyone did a good job taking over the well known roles – but it felt like they were teenagers – everyone just seemed so young. That’s not really a complaint – but it somewhat felt out of place to me – seeing a space ship being run by a pack of horny co-eds doesn’t feel like an amazing plan to me. Simon Pegg (who plays Scotty) was the only one who I got the feeling was older – and he is – but I get the feeling it was more because I’ve seen him in other things so he’s not that new to me. It’s possible after another film – I’d feel differently.

As for the story – it revolved around Kirk and Spock – and the both of them developing as characters and as a team of rivals to run the U.S.S. Enterprise together. In reintroducing the crew there was plenty of interesting and humorous elements – that came together and worked well. There was a nod to a common joke regarding each of them – which was nice and didn’t feel like it took away from the film negatively. My worries with this being a reboot and rewriting the Star Trek past – that I would find myself lost in a concern thinking “what’s the importance of this action – and what happened originally”. Those concerns were taken care of in a couple instances – which was very nice for me. The other part of the story – “the main threat” as it were – involving a Romulan called Nero – felt incomplete and a bit of an afterthought – almost like a tacked on means to an end.

What I didn’t like about this movie was the villain – Nero played by Eric Bana - who was again stiff and dull and provided nothing to the role that any other actor couldn’t bring. I also didn’t care for a part of Nero’s plan – and how nobody decided to do the simplest thing to stop it. For those of you who have seen this movie – what did they do to Nero’s plan when he was attacking Earth and why didn’t they do THAT when they were attacking earlier? Wasn’t that a bit of a no-brainer way to stop Nero? I personally thought I missed something stating a reason why they couldn’t do that – because it was the very first thing I thought of doing.

Overall it’s a good film – maybe a bit overrated in some of the lofty reviews I’ve seen – but certainly worthy of a couple hours of your summer. I give this film 4 out of 5 stars.