movie recommendation: unstoppable
Quote of the Day: "Chris Pine is pretty hot." - JQ (this is why I love my boyfriend)
JQ and I went to see Unstoppable last night. I had seen in the newspaper that the movie is only 98 minutes long, and wondered why. Now I know: it's because if it was any longer, the audience would have heart attacks from the stress.
In the movie, Chris Pine plays a young train conductor, Will Colson, who is staying with his brother because his wife has taken out a restraining order against him (we eventually learn why). He's assigned to work with an engineer, Frank Barnes, played by Denzel Washington, who resents him because young workers are being hired as older workers are being asked to take early retirement, because his Colson family connections and union membership may have helped him get the job, while Barnes has worked in "railroadin'" for twenty-eight years, and because he is too distracted by his constantly-ringing cellphone to get the job done properly.
On the other end of the railroad line, another pair of railroad workers have lost control of a train carrying hazardous chemicals and it begins speeding down the track without them. Rosario Dawson plays Connie, the yard master who has to manage the crisis, and she is wonderful as a smart, confident woman working in a male-dominated industry. When Connie's boss comes up with an idea that will endanger the people of Will's hometown, Frank suggests that they take matters into their own hands to stop the runaway train- even if it means risking their jobs and even their own lives.
Unstoppable is very well written. There are many levels of conflict at work (Will's family drama, young workers vs. experienced workers, gut instincts vs. science and reasoning, blue collar vs. white collar workers, etc.) and the characters are complex- Will's flaw, as pointed out by Frank, is that he quits too easily, and the audience sees him overcome this flaw in his personal as well as his professional life. The framing device of local news footage is used to help advance the plot and to draw attention to the ambulance-chasing aspect of modern entertainment.
I love action movies, I like Chris Pine and Denzel Washington, and I have fond memories of my third grade field trip to ride on a train. Unstoppable did not disappoint me at all, it's incredibly suspenseful and is worth seeing on the big screen because of all the action- I told JQ it will probably hold the title of "my favorite movie of 2010" until Deathly Hallows comes out on Friday :)
JQ and I went to see Unstoppable last night. I had seen in the newspaper that the movie is only 98 minutes long, and wondered why. Now I know: it's because if it was any longer, the audience would have heart attacks from the stress.
In the movie, Chris Pine plays a young train conductor, Will Colson, who is staying with his brother because his wife has taken out a restraining order against him (we eventually learn why). He's assigned to work with an engineer, Frank Barnes, played by Denzel Washington, who resents him because young workers are being hired as older workers are being asked to take early retirement, because his Colson family connections and union membership may have helped him get the job, while Barnes has worked in "railroadin'" for twenty-eight years, and because he is too distracted by his constantly-ringing cellphone to get the job done properly.
On the other end of the railroad line, another pair of railroad workers have lost control of a train carrying hazardous chemicals and it begins speeding down the track without them. Rosario Dawson plays Connie, the yard master who has to manage the crisis, and she is wonderful as a smart, confident woman working in a male-dominated industry. When Connie's boss comes up with an idea that will endanger the people of Will's hometown, Frank suggests that they take matters into their own hands to stop the runaway train- even if it means risking their jobs and even their own lives.
Unstoppable is very well written. There are many levels of conflict at work (Will's family drama, young workers vs. experienced workers, gut instincts vs. science and reasoning, blue collar vs. white collar workers, etc.) and the characters are complex- Will's flaw, as pointed out by Frank, is that he quits too easily, and the audience sees him overcome this flaw in his personal as well as his professional life. The framing device of local news footage is used to help advance the plot and to draw attention to the ambulance-chasing aspect of modern entertainment.
I love action movies, I like Chris Pine and Denzel Washington, and I have fond memories of my third grade field trip to ride on a train. Unstoppable did not disappoint me at all, it's incredibly suspenseful and is worth seeing on the big screen because of all the action- I told JQ it will probably hold the title of "my favorite movie of 2010" until Deathly Hallows comes out on Friday :)