Unstoppable (Tony Scott, 2010)

[Morris Schæffer]

Trailer:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/46051

I've always loved rampaging trains on the big screens - The Cassandra Crossing, Runaway Train - so I'll be seeing this.

[Sxottlan]

I'm getting tired of Tony Scott, but my dad is a big train nut, so I think I'll probably take him to see it.

[Dukefrukem]

What is Denzel thinking? I get it, you've tow worked together for years... but this looks bad. Deja Vu bad.

[Boner M]

Deja Vu is the only Scott/Washington movie I've liked, so without watching the trailer and seeing Duke's reaction above, I will see this movie.

[B-side]

Looks like crap.

[number8]

What is this, 1995?

[Sven]

This looks quite promising, actually. People jerk their knees strangely, I find.

[Watashi]

This looks quite promising, actually. People jerk their knees strangely, I find.
It's Tony Scott.

[Morris Schæffer]

Deja Vu is the only Scott/Washington movie I've liked, so without watching the trailer and seeing Duke's reaction above, I will see this movie.

Gotta say that I greatly prefer Crimson Tide to Deja Vu.

[Watashi]

Also written by the dude who wrote Race to Witch Mountain and Godsend.

[B-side]

This looks quite promising, actually. People jerk their knees strangely, I find.

Or, y'know, maybe they're reacting honestly to the trailer, which is crap.

And I liked Domino, so I have no special reservoir of hatred for Tony Scott.

[Winston*]

This looks quite promising, actually. People jerk their knees strangely, I find.
Yeah, looks like a solid action film.

[Morris Schæffer]

Also written by the dude who wrote Race to Witch Mountain and Godsend.

You just can't go wrong with trains. :) And I had a blast with Die Hard 4.0.

[Sxottlan]

What is this, 1995?

It certainly has a 90's action vibe.

I can't believe it's been long enough that I can actually say that.

[Morris Schæffer]

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox/unstoppable/images/poster-xlarge.jpg
Wow!

[MacGuffin]

Huh. For some reason I thought this was out on video already.

[Henry Gale]

I love the shot of them shooting the train so much. It's like my new favourite trailer moment. I can't get enough of it.

Also, this trailer seems to have been in front of every movie I've seen in the last little while too, each time with a slightly different group of my friends. So now it just delights me to see them and the other audience members erupt with laughter as they all witness it for the first time.

For this alone, I just may pay to see it at some point.

[MadMan]

I like Tony Scott, but the trailer was incredibly meh.

[Skitch]

So I heard nothing about this until I saw the trailer with my buddy, who waited till then to tell me they filmed in a train changing area about 20 miles from us. An area that because of my work, I have FULL AUTHORIZATION to enter ANY TIME.

D A M M I T.

[Morris Schæffer]

So I heard nothing about this until I saw the trailer with my buddy, who waited till then to tell me they filmed in a train changing area about 20 miles from us. An area that because of my work, I have FULL AUTHORIZATION to enter ANY TIME.

D A M M I T.

You didn't hear any massive explosions or machine guns being fired? :)

[megladon8]

I don't know why but I find the existence of this movie so weird.

I really don't get what audience they are going for.

[Morris Schæffer]

I don't know why but I find the existence of this movie so weird.

I really don't get what audience they are going for.

That is weird Meg. In the end, it's a high-concept thriller with lots of action and the prerequisite family shenanigans thrown in for us to latch unto emotionally. Perhaps you're puzzled because there have been so few train movies in the past decades. :D

[EvilShoe]

Don't understand the existence of this movie either. Looks awful as well.

Runaway Train's fantastic though.

[baby doll]

After Domino, I really wanted to believe that Scott was an auteur, and he's definitely got some good films under his belt (True Romance, DéjÃ* vu), but that's only because he had a good script. He's basically the definition of a competent commercial filmmaker. Everything he does is professional and slick, but most of his movies are fairly mediocre (The Hunger, Top Gun, Enemy of the State), and this looks to be the rule rather than the exception.

[baby doll]

It certainly has a 90's action vibe.

I can't believe it's been long enough that I can actually say that.Think they'll put Soul Asylum on the soundtrack?

[Grouchy]

I don't know why but I find the existence of this movie so weird.

I really don't get what audience they are going for.
Huh? That's really not a mystery to me. Like Morris says, it's a train movie.

[MacGuffin]

Huh? That's really not a mystery to me. Like Morris says, it's a train movie.
I have a feeling it will draw in the old conductor crowd.

[number8]

I'm sure there are people who will be all aboard.

[Morris Schæffer]

First bunch of reviews are good. I'll watch this for sure.

[D_Davis]

This film is on track to do very well, unless the marketing fails and its momentum is derailed.

[megladon8]

This film is on track to do very well, unless the marketing fails and its momentum is derailed.


I see what you did thar.

You might even say that it took a lot of...training...to make this movie!

Right? Right?

[Skitch]

This is eerily familiar.

This is eerily familiar.

[Morris Schæffer]

Really strong reviews still. 86% on RT, but this blurb made me chuckle:

"Not since The Bone Collector has Denzel Washington (playing a quadriplegic) spent so much screen time sitting on his ass."

:)

[EyesWideOpen]

UNSTOPPABLE IS NOT JUST A MOVIE.........IT'S AN EXPERIENCE!!!!!!!!!

[Boner M]

Tony Scott's latest thriller turns out to be pure cinema in the classic sense of the term.
:pritch:

[Sven]

The other night, someone tried to use my not-negative position on Tony Scott as ammunition against my entire position on film in general. So many enemies! I believe the subject of discussion was fast editing and my whining about increasingly short shot lengths with directors like Nolan.

Anyway, I'm excited to be hearing positive reviews for it. I'd like to note that I was on board from the start.

Have we done any of those jokes? I really haven't been reading this thread.

[BuffaloWilder]

Nolan's shots are too short? Say what?

I mean, his fight sequences in Batman Begins were a little disorienting, for a narrative reason - but, most of the action sequences in The Dark Knight are relatively long and prolonged one-takes.

[Sxottlan]

This was awful; the most obnoxious and annoying film of the year. I wasn't expecting to hate it as much as I did, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised when it's Tony Scott. There's tons of plot holes and cameras rotating around said plot holes in pretty much every. Single. SHOT.

It gets to the point that there are such ridiculous swooping helicopter shots in the final scene so absolutely pointless and over the top that I really thought Scott was doing it for a laugh.

Hey, how about the early scene of the kids of the train? Where literally every single line the kids had involved screaming at the top of their lungs. And where the guide insists the kids keep screaming louder and louder. Not annoying at all, oh no.

Also, this movie abused the lazy plot device of using the news media as exposition and plot development to the nth degree. I guess it's a greater pet peeve for me since I work in television news. So many of the "live shots" in the film used video from different points of view when they only had one camera with the crew. There's no way these stations would get pictures and identification about all the train engineers and conductors involved so quickly, especially when they kept saying the railroad company wasn't commenting.

Also a pet peeve: when pictures in movies are clearly taken from other film stock of unused scenes. They couldn't even bother to do a real mock up of license or company ID photos because they were so busy laying down circular dolly track and lettin' 'em rip. I swear the girlfriend's picture ID on Coleson's cell phone was an image of her from that very same day looking quite concerned.

[Morris Schæffer]

Hm. Sxottlan and I usually see eye to eye on such mainstream fare so I hope I'll disagree with him.

[Dukefrukem]

Is it worse than Deja Vu?

[Morris Schæffer]

Is it worse than Deja Vu?

Absolutely not!

[D_Davis]

The other night, someone tried to use my not-negative position on Tony Scott as ammunition against my entire position on film in general. So many enemies! I believe the subject of discussion was fast editing and my whining about increasingly short shot lengths with directors like Nolan.


I call this the....

http://www.genrebusters.com/images/baycard.jpg

People play it on me all the time.

[Izzy Black]

After Domino, I really wanted to believe that Scott was an auteur, and he's definitely got some good films under his belt (True Romance, DéjÃ* vu), but that's only because he had a good script. He's basically the definition of a competent commercial filmmaker. Everything he does is professional and slick, but most of his movies are fairly mediocre (The Hunger, Top Gun, Enemy of the State), and this looks to be the rule rather than the exception.
I don't see how one film can be evidence of his auteurism. His auteurism is found in all the films just mentioned. Domino is part of the trend (and a culmination at that), not the exception, in my view. I agree he is also a competent commercial filmmaker, but I would be inclined to say he's often times an incompetent one. He's much more interested in his own aesthetic than anything, but he knows how to make a decent buck to keep doing what he does.

Incidentally, I actually find True Romance and Top Gun to be two of his weaker, less-inspired films.

[B-side]

Is it worse than Deja Vu?

Deja Vu is very good, possibly great.

Here (http://tativille.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-film-unstoppable.html)'s a great article on Unstoppable and its relation to Deja Vu. Makes me wanna see it, and not to laugh at it.

[Sxottlan]

Is it worse than Deja Vu?

Deja Vu is actually the only Tony Scott film I liked since Enemy of the State in 1998. Although to this day I have no clue how the time travel actually worked in that film.

I have not seen Domino.

[Rowland]

Domino is my favorite '00s Scott film. I agree with Sxottlan that Deja Vu's time travel metaphysics had no coherent internal logic, or I just really missed something. Spy Game tends to get high marks, but I thought it was a snore, Man on Fire is more fun than its ugly politics and narrative bloat should let it be, his Beat the Devil short for the BMW series is a blast, and I haven't seen Pelham.

[TripZone]

I saw Pelham the other night and thoroughly enjoyed it.

[B-side]

I saw Pelham the other night and thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's good.

[Sxottlan]

SNL's Unstoppable spoof (http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/unstoppable-trailer/1259996/).

"It's like the Chrysler Building on top of the Chrysler Building!"

:lol:

[Dukefrukem]

SNL's Unstoppable spoof (http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/unstoppable-trailer/1259996/).

"It's like the Chrysler Building on top of the Chrysler Building!"

:lol:

I enjoyed that.

[Skitch]

This was quite intense. Pretty fun. I had low expectations and enjoyed it more than I thought.

[Morris Schæffer]

Very, very exciting, easily one the better action movies of the year. It gets a little crazy towards the end for about five seconds, but then rights itself at the last moment. There are clichés all right, but the characters maintain just the right amount of veracity to, uh, steer this sucker. And the train is a great villain, a roaring monster destroying everything in its path.

[lovejuice]

This movie is just too good.

I had no idea what it was about, and at first thought it was a "die hard" in a train. Turn out there is no antagonist per se. It's an old-fashioned disaster movie before Emmerich reinvents the genre. I love how during the first half we get the sense all the actions are just everyday jobs for these people, and there indeed is a standard procedure for this kinda thing.

It's also the perfect movie for Scott. With his love of machines, news media, and male glorification.

My only complain is the ending feels like a cop-out. They seem to have exhausted all the creative idea to stop the train. Then they get back to the first idea, and it just happens to work this time.

[Morris Schæffer]

My only complain is the ending feels like a cop-out. They seem to have exhausted all the creative idea to stop the train. Then they get back to the first idea, and it just happens to work this time.

Yeah, at one point I thought they really should have attempted a second guy-on-parachute-tries-to-land-on-train mission. Though I suppose they would need a second locomotive as well to slow down the train. That first attempt, almost, almost worked.

[lovejuice]

Yeah, at one point I thought they really should have attempted a second guy-on-parachute-tries-to-land-on-train mission.
It's sort of funny when you compare the movie logic to the real world. In reality, if a mission fails, you just keep on doing the same thing except with small improvement. In a movie, it totally has to be something new and unexpected.

Imagine a Die Hard movie in which they keep sending in SWAT teams and CIAs. That probably is more realistic, somehow, I guess. :)

[Dukefrukem]

THis was on HBO and I figured what the hell.

Everything about this movie is a riot. The cliches; the fat stupid employee that cause this mess to begin with, the rich evil corp. figurehead that would rather risk lives than lose 30% of their stock value, the ridiculous circumstances to which a truck pulling horses is caught on the tracks... the old experienced engineer with the young nieve buck willing to be taught about life's lessons... GG Tony Scott.

[Dukefrukem]

How did they film this movie anyway? All CGI? A lot of it looks pretty good.

There's a pretty good head shot of the train coming towards the camera, and what looks like a woodchuck, runs across the tracks. It's a great shot, but I just want to know if it was staged or it just happened one day on the set.

[Morris Schæffer]

Wasn't really bothered by the clichés as the movie is just superbly directed and exciting. There does seem to be a remarkable lack of CGI and the action gets quite epic.

[Dukefrukem]

So did they rent out a track somewhere to film? For some reason this seems like a really complicated movie to shoot.

[Morris Schæffer]

So did they rent out a track somewhere to film? For some reason this seems like a really complicated movie to shoot.

Looked like some railroads may have been abandoned and I got the feeling they were showing the same shot but from different angles a few times although I may be wrong.

here's some more from wiki:


The Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_New_York_and_Pennsylva nia_Railroad_%282001%29)'s Buffalo Line was used for two months during daylight, while the railroad managed to run its regular freight service at night.


Filming was delayed one day when part of the train accidentally derailed on November 21, 2009

[Skitch]

They shot some stuff here in Ohio about 20 minutes from me.

[Chac Mool]

I'll stop in to say that I enjoyed this movie quite a bit, but that they lost a magnificent opportunity to call it "Training Day".