Unstoppable

Dynamic, thrilling at times, and, surprisingly, without a ton of clichés (which I would expect from a film like this). One would expect another epileptic fit from Tony Scott, but this time he delivers something completely different. A fast and relatively simple action film, where there's no time even to go to the toilet. I think that the director created exactly what he intended: a top-notch film within its genre. (12/24/2010)

A straightforward action treat, dripping with adrenalin, especially toward the end. I even sort of subliminally guessed how it would all end, and sometimes a shocked “Jeezus" or “Wow" dropped out of my (and not just my) wide open mouth. Scott does incredible work with the entire dynamics and has a talent for action that few can equal, and also I’m really pleased that the trains and the surroundings were all real. No greenscreen sequences. No shortage of clichés here, but Denzel and Chris Pine endured this with flying colors and the movie could be taken to be a harmless return to grassroots. Otherwise, this was one of the most thrilling movies recently. (01/23/2011)

♫ She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes, she’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes... ♫ This doesn’t really sum everything up, but Scott’s “playing with trains" is a perfect example of suspense from start to finish. And does it matter that he achieves this using a thousand and one movie clichés? No it doesn’t because in any case you have no time to realize this before the final credits come up. (12/23/2010)

Especially in the last 30 minutes a solid adrenaline dose. It's been done before and in a better version (Končalovský's Runaway Train, for instance), but otherwise this action flick has one big trump card, and that is the unorthodox setting of railway transport. Scott ticks along with the action, thanks to which even the mandatory clichés surrounding the protagonist's family can be survived unscathed. (12/25/2010)

Unstoppable has one major thing going for it—Tony Scott directed it. He took a D-movie plot that’s been done before (Van Damme even had his own version with Derailed) and turned it into a pretty engaging action flick. What makes it stand out is how real it all feels—no cheesy CGI or cheap tricks, just a solid, grounded feel. That is, if you’re cool with the idea of an unstoppable train barreling down the tracks, carrying more toxic material than a bad day at a power plant, and the fact that the plot could’ve been wrapped up in five minutes if things went right. (05/08/2011)