This is more a review of the film. If you haven't seen it you might want to before you read. But I don't give away any important spoilers that aren't revealed on the back of the box.

Preface
I just watched Unstoppable over the weekend. Not too bad of a movie. They actually derailed a real locomotive in it. (Part of Tony Scotts adamant need of real life visuals over CGI, which I really admire. There's just too much CGI now. If you ask me it all started with Phantom Menace, at least as far as big budget films go.) Anyway, the special features of course had the director and cast/crew going over the production of the movie. It's hard to watch, seeing him so full of life and energy and then he takes his life all of a sudden. When you see him, it's hard to grasp the special feature was filmed 2 years ago and that he is gone. I can already see the void that will be left in films with his departure.

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. He must have had a reason, when they said brain tumor, I thought "well, okay, I guess that works." But now the family says that wasn't true, and there was no reason in the letters he left. I can't believe those closest to him wouldn't have known what was going on. Someone had to know his state of mind; someone that import just doesn't go unnoticed. Depression could only be the other reason, if he wasn't terminally ill, or a mental problem.

In the special features you can tell he really is fanatical about the way he filmed and edited movies. He has a enormous amount of pride and energy that you can pick up on and only someone that is full of life and hope could put that much of themselves into a film. Unstoppable isn't the best of his career, he claimed it was the most difficult to shoot and research. A lot of time when into it and I think he's right on. Getting that much track reserved to film a movie could be next to impossible now and getting each shot setup: a nightmare.

Unstoppable - Review of the final Tony Scott Film

To put it bluntly, if Unstoppable were filmed by any other director the result would have been abysmal. Tony Scott draws upon his 20 plus years of directing to take this project to the big screen. His demanding requirements of what goes into his films, his use of camera angles and wide angle shots, the lack of any unnecessary CGI to give the viewer that sense of up close realism that has been absent in most films since the late 90's, make Unstoppable a movie to enjoy, not debate who's going to get the Oscar for this or that.

No one's winning any races or defending the friendly skies over the Atlantic, you're not going to hear bullets whizzing past you or someone yelling from the submarine command center "Dive! Dive! Dive!" . You won't find any catchy one-liners either. The action is more controlled, centered, human. It's a reality movie but with all the appeal of a big budget action movie.

The villain isn't a corrupt Big Brother watching from above in high definition, the villain isn't even a person, it's an unstoppable force with a mind of its own: a multi million pound train. Unstoppable is a true roller coaster ride all the way. It has character from Denzel Washington giving his 5th and final appearance in Scott's film legacy since 1995's Crimson Tide and Chris Pine teaming up with a very believable performance. They're the heroes of Unstoppable as they're top billed, but they're not supermen. They don't perform any miracle maneuvers in mid air while emptying two clips and reloading before hitting the ground. They're saving the day by doing what their characters were meant to do: their jobs. The film is based on real events and it's not going to bend reality so much as to have your head in a knot. You understand the characters, you can relate, you know their weaknesses and they're played against them to overcome not just the main obstacle but their own evils.

Unstoppable is a film that shows you everyday people going beyond their required duty to save the day. One of the best parts in the film is when they're told not to do anything and even threatened to be fired if they don't stop what they're doing. The antagonistic CEO asks him why he would risk his life when he's three weeks from retirement and it doesn't really hit you what this movie was about until then.

Forget about someone doing the impossible and nick of the moment acrobatics that get most movie goers raving and drooling for endless action and violence that is prevalent in most movies, this feature has none of it. It's about someone doing what they can because they were never asked to and because they know they must. Unstoppable was believable. Tony Scott gave us a final film from the heart, not something that will go down as the highest grossing blockbuster of all time, but as a true character piece, a visually captive approach to filmmaking and an inspiration to anyone out there who wonders what true heroes are.

They're not men of steel and dressed in capes, they're the ones who never give a thought to their own safety before diving in head first and ensuring someone else's and they could just as likely be you or me. And when they finally save the day you feel great, emotional, enriched with appreciation for these average Joes that remind us of Uncle Jack that used to work for Union Pacific for 25 years or maybe that friend of Steve who went out of his way that time back in '89 and saved some folks from harm. It gets you right in the heart and sticks.

Unstoppable is the last of Tony Scott's films and it rests comfortably at the end of his credits. He mentions in the special features that he's really making the same movie over and over each time, each time a little different but in a lot of ways they're the same, crafted from the same piece of clay or block of ice. I think I know what he means. He left his heart and soul in them and if you want to know what Tony Scott was all about, just give one of his films a try.

Final Thoughts
So we're left with a mystery as to why he took his life and it's likely that we'll never know the reason. I only hope he was satisfied with his work because I know I really enjoyed his movies over the years. I remember Top Gun and Days of Thunder the most. What I think I like the most about his films is how many times I can re-watch them and enjoy them the same each time. A lot of his films are that way. They had it all. He didn't make spectacular movies, he made great movies. The ones you can just watch for fun.

"Tower, this is Ghost Rider requesting a flyby. Negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full."

I haven't watched it since early March last year. I was a little disappointed with the sound, it was okay just not what I was expecting. I might give it another play it has R2 DVD that is also a digital copy.

Somedays I just don't think you have your speakers up high enough, haha.

Aside from that, I saw this one in 35mm at the local cinema during its first run. Aside from having the wrong lens on the projector, cropping the top and bottom off a bit, it looked and sounded great. I loved it.
The Blu Ray was just as good, if not a bit better than the local cinema due to it being the correct aspect ratio, haha.

Might have been something wrong with the automation or it wasn't checked while it played. If it was a manual switch-over the projectionist would mute audio depending what format its running at the time, close the dowser, flip lens over from W/S to scope and change the aperture plate from W/S to scope all within a couple of seconds open the dowser changed format to Dolby digital unless it was already in SR-D, then turned up the fader to "7" checked focus on white credit titles waited a couple more seconds that its running fine then gone to the next projector to lace up as there always shows coming off or need to be started.

What was the name of the cinema and the time you saw it what screen was it playing in and where do you normally sit? was it a THX screen or non-THX was it a small / medium or large cinema?