Another one bites the dust. A few blockbuster movies have been getting the boot lately, and yesterday, the Denzel Washington/Chris Pine train caper Unstoppable became the latest casualty. Am I disappointed? Um, no. The movie was about an 'aging' engineer who passes on the reins to his younger, equally handsome protege. The transition, however, is interrupted by a locomotive full of explosives.I'm not a fan of action movies that take place solely on trains. There aren't many options after all. You can stay on the track or derail, and that gets tedious after 120 minutes. I think I've seen 2 good train movies in my life - The Great Train Robbery and World Without Thieves (Andy Lau, Ge You, Rene Liu, Li Bingbing). The first is fascinating for the simple theatricality inherent in the early silents, and the second has a complicated emotional subtext that enhances and balances the action. I also think the action style coming out of Asia is better suited for train sequences. America has mastered big explosions and really punchy, and paunchy, fight scenes. It's one of the reasons why they do well with massive landscapes - leveling cities, obliterating planets, wreaking general havoc; Americans like space and fill it well. But even the oldest, clunkiest trains are slender, snakey creatures. The martial arts influence lends a more streamlined and economical style that's more adaptable to the confines of a train, unlike the raucous Hollywood-style fist fights that seem confined by a train. See some of the sequences in World Without Thieves that capitalize on that flexibility where the train becomes a character rather than a cheap device.
Anyway, hopefully this gives Mr. Pine better options. He really doesn't need to star in another action blockbuster as he's already in the pipeline for another 2 Star Trek sequels. Those will be enough to anchor his big budget credentials. I'd rather see him diversify with projects like Farragut North, a political power play he's doing out in L.A. at the moment, or Bottle Shock, a 2008 indie about 1970s Napa Valley. At least he's out of cheesy romantic teen comedy territory. Those are generally vehicles for B-list starlets and rely on a stash of up-and-coming leading men. And that's enough debate about the career of a person I do not know.
Here's The Great Train Robbery for your viewing pleasure. The music is okay and actually fits the movie well, but I prefer the piano parlour stuff. Silents don't necessarily have an 'official' score as music differed with venue. Anyway, an oldie but goody. If only Pelham 123 took note.
