Unstoppable has a silly but sturdy action movie premise that reminded me a bit of Speed. A runaway train (carrying toxic chemicals, no less) is racing towards small towns in Pennsylvania and it’s up to two railroad workers to stop it. One is a hardened veteran (played with his usual charismatic cool by Denzel Washington), the other is an entitled, brash rookie (well-played by Chris Pine from the new Star Trek reboot). The two men must battle against their own differences, an evil right-wing corporation that could care less about human life (there’s no other kind these days, it seems), and race against time to stop the train. Directed with loads of style by Tony Scott, Unstoppable is one of the best action movies of the year so far. It never slows down for a moment.

A routine day on the job for Frank (Denzel Washington) becomes a race against time after a runaway train (with no conductor or brakes) hurtles towards heavily populated small towns in rural Pennsylvania. Frank is saddled with a cocky new co-worker named Will (Pine) as the two men must stop the train by any means necessary. There’s also an inept corporate type who tries (and fails) to stop the train as it hurtles towards death and destruction. Unstoppable is “inspired by a true story”, and while that is pretty much ridiculous, the movie moves so quickly that viewers barely have time to catch their breath, let alone question the movie’s authenticity. Tony Scott has made some very bad movies lately (Domino and Man on Fire instantly come to mind), but he’s found the right vehicle in Unstoppable. Toning down his sliced to ribbons editing and ugly green filters, Unstoppable is frantic but smoothly directed and easy to follow. Unstoppable is gold for action movie fans.

Grade: A-

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