Shocking unstoppable headline: Denzel Washington Is “Unstoppable”

Share it: Two-time Oscar winner, Denzel Washington is back on the Hollywood track in the runaway train action thriller, “Unstoppable,” which is out in theaters now.  (CBS/The Early Show) Photo Essay Denzel Washington A superstar with two Oscars, $20 million deals and “sexy man” status.   Nothing can derail Denzel Washington’s career the actor is unstoppable on the big screen. This year has again proven that stars don’t get much brighter than the two-time Oscar winner. Why do directors team up with the same actors over and over again?

It was 15 years ago that Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott first hooked up for a cinematic collaboration, delivering the first-rate thriller “Crimson Tide.” Their creative partnership became, in the words of Washington, a “good marriage,” leading to three more pictures (“Man on Fire,” “Déjà Vu” and “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3″) and a fifth pairing that was announced even before “Pelham” hit theaters. Though it reportedly cost $100 million, the film will disappoint those looking for big-budget pyrotechnics. “We work well together,” Denzel explained. Despite some nice stunt work, this is the couldn’t-be-simpler story of two guys and a train. Of course, not all runaway train (or bus or subway car) movies are created equal. Instead, Washington and Chris Pine are trying to stop it. Denzel Washington is Frank, the experienced engineer about to face forced retirement. When he learns that a train, carrying 30,000 gallons of toxic chemicals, is headed for a populated area, Washington goes against everybody’s advice and decides to do the right thing and save that train. From Tonys viewpoint it makes perfect sense, here is a great actor who always delivers the goods and can do drama, comedy or action. The film is the real deal, no green screen needed. He gets his chance one cold Pennsylvania morning, when a slacker colleague ( Ethan Suplee ) neglects to secure the brakes on a freight train carrying toxic materials.

Never mind why the mile-long train in the film is out of control. Denzel plays the working man who is being forced out of a job while an unmanned train carrying combustible liquids and poisonous gas is tearing down the track. It’s barreling down the Pennsylvania rails. Granted, his plan could kill them both. Denzel recently played a similar role in Pelham 123, also directed by Tony Scott. “I hope I’m not speaking out of line. So writer Mark Bomback makes a half-hearted attempt at a back-story: Frank has two teenage daughters, Will is fighting a restraining order that keeps him from his family. What you see is what you get.

The kinetic energy of these scenes, not to mention the stuntwork, is amazing. I guess it does when you want to add subplots about the suits at the trail company wanting to stop the thing while causing minimal damage. Yet a week later, Washington was officially back in the mix, and filming began in August with Rosario Dawson coming along for the ride . Washington as a soon-to-be-retired engineer and Pine as the rookie conductor the engineer is training fit that bill to a T. The trailer pulled into the Internet station a year later: big, fast, loud and, seemingly, a whole lot of fun. Not the case with Unstoppable . You know they need the shots. Tony knows how to make the viewer feel like they are going over 100 miles an hour. You know what you’re signing up for. Ive seen a few trailers and commercials for this film, and the ones that play up the train make this seem like the perfect popcorn movie to check out over Thanksgiving when youve had enough of your family. So if I dont get out to it this weekend, Im sure Ill be there on Thursday November 25th, hopefully around 6pm. Like any good buddy movie, particularly one with a veteran and a rookie teaming up, they can’t stand each other at first. So which ones did Washington do?

“Unstoppable” is in theaters now.