Unstoppable

Unstoppable is the kind of stripped back action thriller you rarely seem to get these days. Purely and simple it is the story of a runaway train and the people trying to stop it before it derails in the middle of a town and that's about it.

There is no romantic subplot to speak of (though worried family members of course feature), no moralising, no political agendas, just some guys (and gals) trying to stop a train who a misguided company boss for a bit of booing.

Once things get rolling there is no doubt that Tony Scott is a wise choice for this moving as his energetic style dovetails nicely to project a sense of constant movement and people trying to keep with a situation that is spiraling out of control (although he does manage to pack in quite a lot of helicopters for a film about trains).

A well used mechanic by the director is the frequently switches to news camera footage as the drama unfolds, these little sections allow for the use of maps to show us where everything is, stats on the number of people endangered and recaps on the plans to stop the runaway freight train in case the audience wasn't paying enough attention.

Denzel Washington and Chris Pine prove a capable central paring, who at first of course don't get along but buddy up across the film's runtime with one the veteran and the other rookie. A classic setup yes, but it still works well. Washington is always reliable and this kind of honorable blue collar man is the sort of role he works well in, Chris Pine shows he is more than just a certain Starship captain even if he isn't really called upon to do anything much more than charmingly a bit cocky (like a certain captain)

And backing them up is Rosario Dawson as a rail company co-coordinator and again whilst she isn't called upon to do anything too heavy she delivers what she has well in a role where her gender is irrelevant. She's not romantically involved with any of the other cat nor is ability called in doubt because she is a woman (which so often the case in these kind of films). She's just a professional doing all she can.

One of the real plus points of the film is the almost total lack of CGI (there probably is some but nothing I really noticed - most likely during the high speed curve glimpsed in the trailer above) as the action is mostly done with good old school stunt work. Where real trains are driven through real trucks and real people run along the top of real speeding trains.

One breathless sequence sees Pine's character struggling to couple train cars together at over 70mph whilst blinded by grain escaping from one of the cars. It's an exciting sequence and although you know I'll survive it's tense as he disappears from view seemingly under the train.

How close things are to the events that inspired the film I don't know but I do know it is a thoroughly entertaining race against time thriller with a strong cast and real sense of momentum.

R.Tv.O.F.R : Love The Way You Lie

Truly "Recovery" was a return to form for Mr Marshall Matthers and Love The Way You Lie is the biggest track from it so far and the accompying video is one of the type they rarely make anymore - that bizarre combination of being unshowy and yet undoutedly an expensive one full of great imagery (and actually possibly Megan Fox's best performance to date..)

Sunday Smile

They've done True Blood (aka True Mud) now it's CSI's turn to get the Sesame Street treatment



And a spot of Law & Order for good measure

Quiz Time : Opening Images Level 2

Right, challenge accepted! Another batch of stills taken from the opening moments of films and this time no url based clues. Once again there are couple of gifts in there (the first two really should ease you in) but this time I think there are a couple of genuinely tricky ones.

If anyone wants to hide their answers from others send 'em as a message on good 'ol facebook.


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Quiz Time : Opening Images

Basically name the film from the screenshot, all of which have been taken from the opening moments of the film in question;

(And know I consider at least three of these embarrassingly easy)

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Trailer of the day : Bad Teacher

Quite childish, but quite funny and I've met teachers a lot like this...

The General.

The film comedy that made me really laugh out loud a few times the other day was in fact nigh on ninety years old and still a brilliant piece of work.

It was Buster Keaton's "The General", which tells the tale of a railroad engineer racing to save at first his train and then his fiance during the American civil war and it is packed full of fantastic comedy timing and outrageous stunts.

You're unlikely to find today's comedians going as far as risking their life and physically manhandling railway sleepers all for the sake of a gag. He then plunges a rail train off a real bridge into a real river...

How the Stars stay fit..

(Disclaimer : comedy skit from Jimmy Kimmel, not actual smut!)

And it's all awards over...

Well the jockeying and jostling is over as the film award season once again comes to a close with the Oscars and well the prizes went to pretty much you expected them to in the end.

The only real question in the end was would Fincher get a nod for direction on Social Network? True to form the Academy declined to separate Best Film from Best Director and both awards went the way of The King's Speech.

At the end of the day it's the Academy Awards themselves that are finding it increasingly hard to make an impact in this day and age. By the time the grand daddy of film awards comes around there have been so many ceremonies each year that fatigue sets in and often the repeated awards go to the same faces making the Oscars easy to predict seeing as many of the Academy vote in these earlier bouts.

It doesn't help that the ceremony itself once a big time television event full of glamour finds it's harder to find an audience and stay relevant to a younger audience. This year's approach using James Franco and Anna Hathaway to front instead of the usual candidates (Billy Crystal) didn't quite come off.

The two actors didn't look that comfortable and the material they were given was MTV Movie Award Lite and it was left to some impromptu swearing to really make much of a stir.

Next year I suggest an abridged version where the whole thing takes place on the Red Carpet, after all that's the part people are interested in...."What are they wearing?"