Unstoppable (2010)

Entertainment Rating: 4 of 5

This was a great movie. An added bonus was that it was about an hour and a half long - short and sweet. We found ourselves on the edge of our seats for pretty much the entire show. Definitely check this one out. My one small, minor nit-pick is the believability of the news reports when they showed the at-fault employee’s picture and name on the TV and mention that “he will answer for his irresponsible behavior” was a little too much of a stretch; the news reports in general could have been better done.

Gotta love the Black Keys song used at the beginning of the trailer.

Moral Rating: 4 of 5

This movie is based on true events, and for the most part it follows the events pretty close. We see how one stupid mistake (which at the time didn’t seem that big of a deal) escalated into a lives-threatening situation. Some may think this lesson applies only in big-impact situations where mistakes can lead inescapably to death (e.g., train yards, airplanes, battle front, etc.), but we need to remember that people making stupid mistakes in cars (an everyday experience for most people) - texting, cell phone usage, drinking, etc - can just as easily have serious repercussions.

Family relationships are another nice touch to the story here. We have one engineer (Denzel Washington) show his love for his daughters and his effort to reach out to them for forgiveness, when it might be easier to stand off. The other engineer (Chris Pine) is in a rough position with his wife, but is encouraged by his wise partner (Washington) that he needs to reach out and not let her go.