Date Night - Unstoppable

Plot: In this action thriller from director Tony Scott, rookie train operator Will (Chris Pine) and grizzled veteran engineer Frank (Denzel Washington) learn that a runaway locomotive carrying carloads of dangerous chemicals is headed for Will's small Pennsylvania hometown, where his wife and young daughter live. In order to save the day, they must figure out how to catch up to the rogue engine, and stop it before harm comes to the town. Standing in their way is Galvin (Kevin Dunn), the head of the company who is more interested in saving the stock price than lives. On the plus side, the duo have competent corporate employee Connie (Rosario Dawson) on the radio, talking them through their various attempts to corral and then stop the potentially lethal locomotive. via

Matt's Rating: C+

Nicole's Rating: B-

Matt: I don't understand why this is getting such good ratings.

Nicole: Me neither. I mean, it was good. I enjoyed it a lot. I thought both Denzel and Chris Pine were really great in it. And I'd recommend people go see it. But I'm not really understanding the hype.

M: Agreed. Publish post.

N: I would never tell anyone, OH MY GOD YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS MOVIE. And I feel like that's the sort of attention it's getting.

M: I just never cared enough about any of the characters to be truly held in suspense.

N: I found a lot of it suspenseful. I grabbed onto you how many times? When Chris Pine jams his foot and falls! That was scary and suspenseful. When you think the train is going to run right into all those annoying screaming kids! That was suspenseful.

M: I thought the most suspenseful part of the movie was when it was going to hit the horses.

N: Oh gosh, that was another part.

M: There was no victim to be killed, there was no bad guy to hate, there was no dramatic tension. So it became difficult to get emotionally invested in the story.

N: And then all they did was stop the train.

M: Yeah. It was anticlimactic. What prevents this from being a truly cheesy movie was the perfomances by Denzel Washington and Chris Pine. Without them it was just an over the top action flick.

N: About an inanimate object.

M: But with the movie Speed, what made that compelling was that there was hostages and there was a bad guy. And there was a goal in mind. And good subplots. But this movie was so one dimensional and it's subplots were never fully developed enough.

N: You're making me rethink my letter grade.

M: Damn straight.

N: I think all in all, I found it to be an entertaining couple of hours. Wait, was it even that long? Doesn't matter. I found it entertaining, but I probably won't bother myself to ever watch it again.

M: It was entertaining, but not enough to see it in theaters. Wait till the DVD.