UNSTOPPABLE (Tony Scott)

-

UNSTOPPABLE has that adrenaline rush-feel of "SPEED", but this time there is no maniacal terrorist; the antagonist is human error. 

Denzel Washington is effective in roles such as this, a veteran railroader schooling the rookie Chris Pine. On the most unfortunate of days, an unmanned runaway train carrying highly toxic molten Phenol storms through town after town, and an impending crisis looms as such train is headed for a highly populated city, where derailment is not a possibility, but a guarantee.

Director Tony Scott, working with his favorite actor Denzel Washington grabs you by the throat for unrelenting 98 minutes. This is a movie where there are archetypal heroes, stereotype corporate A-holes, and a crisis that surrounds the story. 

What makes UNSTOPPABLE work is the level of suspense it generates, and the knowledge that an inanimate object such as a train, can inflict so much disaster. 

It is quite refreshing to see the filmmakers veer away from conspiracies, terrorist threats, or crime-related plots although its reference to true events may explain such direction. 

As usual, Scott's films' are characterized by giddy camera shots and fast-paced editing from one frame and camera angle to another, and these techniques are similarly rendered in UNSTOPPABLE. This director knows how to generate a climax: I rose up my seat as the train made that dangerous turn in the Stanton Curve, the scene where the rear train cars rose midair. 

The story is not unique, but it is decent enough. There is a subplot about how railroad men suck at family life, and you have to watch the sharp dialogue exchange between Pine and Washington. Denzel still got his mojo. 

RATING: 4/5

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TUHOG (Jeffrey Jeturian)

-
Image
Film within a film-structured movies are always interesting watch. Not only do they provide a much-needed deconstruction of form and content of cinema itself, but also that much-needed emotional punch a cinephile would surely love.  Like in BAD EDUCATION (Almodovar, 2004), we witness the characters tell the back story via montage, as if we are part of the cast of characters watching an actual movie. The form was successful in evoking pain and regret, and also of empathy. In TUHOG, Jeffrey Jeturian and screenwriter Bing Lao tackles sensational media in the Philippines, especially in cinema. The film opens as a film producer hears a pitch for a possible movie- a story of a grandfather who rapes his own granddaughter.  The director of the film soon after visits the victim of the crime, Floring (Ina Raymundo). Coercing both she and her mother, Perla (Irma Adlawan) to sell them the movie rights to their story, we witness as exploitation cinema unfolds. To think of it, capitalizing on ta
Read more

ANINO SA LIKOD NG BUWAN (Jun Lana, 2015)

-
Image
* English title "Shadow behind the Moon" The best term to describe Jun Lana's latest film would be a cinematic charade- a game of identities, of motives, of suppressed passions, and of uncertainty. Or the film equivalent of a Russian doll, if you will. "Anino sa Likod ng Buwan" only has three characters- husband and wife Nando (Anthony Falcon) and Emma (LJ Reyes) and military man Joel (Luis Alandy). What started as a seemingly routine banter among friends gradually and intensely escalated into an examination of society, where the definition of immorality is blurred during a time of insurgency.  And in fact, the film does discuss the subject of immorality from various paradigms. When does adultery become acceptable, and to whom? Is sexual liberation more heinous than murder? Why is immorality always a double standard? The film plays out the ideas in endless games. Or are they really games at all? Lana could have stopped there, but he didn'
Read more

A study of spaces in Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit's 'Happy Old Year'

-
Image
Space is both an overarching theme and visual signifier in Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit's Happy Old Year . Its protagonist, Jean (Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying) comes home from a lengthy stay abroad, determined to declutter her life, and along with it, old things that belong to a past she is desperately running away from. As we watch Jean plan the redesign of their family house into a more spacious and minimalist residential office, we also witness the transformation of the persons that inhabit the house, as well as their connection to other people, most of them absent from the frame. Jean the destroyer Millennials have often been criticized for being rash with their actions, and for having their way, no matter what. The filmmaker, a millennial himself, understands this stigma, and subliminally argues that millennials are the way they are because of a multitude of factors: rising cost of living, the evolution of discourse as a result of technology (such as film streaming se
Read more