It's been well documented in this blog about my disdain for the current output of Hollywood studio Twenieth Century Fox. Usually going for the populist cheap buck, Fox movies are engineered by committee to appeal to key demographics. They either hire talentless hacks (Tim Story/Brett Ratner/John Moore) to film their stuff or recruit talent (Joe Carnahan/James Mangold/M Night Shyamalan) that they can bully into watering down their artistic visions into something blander and more palatable to the idiotic masses. What Fox REALLY need is a talented director that can churn out mass entertainment in their sleep.
Enter Tony Scott. Unstoppable is the best Fox movie since Avatar. It's a stripped to basics, action filled, high concept roller coaster perfectly suited to Scott's frenetic talents. The concept is simple; a 70mph, 2 mile long, driverless locomotive goes out of control and it's up to heroes Denzel Washington and Chris (Captain Kirk) Pine to save the day. There's not an ounce of originality here but Tony Scott is a seasoned pro. You've got the best stunts, photography, buddy movie relationships, cast (Rosario Dawson, Ethan Suplee, Kevin Dunn in fine support) and action money can buy. It's woven together with an increasingly tense series of set-pieces that leave you glued to the screen rooting for Chris & Denzel to stop bickering and catch that choo choo.
That's all you need to know really. Very, very simple and very, very effective. I suspect it's the idealised model for every movie at Fox. Thing is, there are very few directors of Scott's calibre that can pull this kind of commercial wackiness off. Knight and Day, The A-Team, Percy Jackson...all failed to deliver artistically and commercially this year. So even though Fox have found their true love, I suspect that Scott isn't interested in a monogamous relationship with just one studio.
1 comment:
UNSTOPPALE was a lot of fun. Sure, it was about as subtle as a sledge hammer and gleefully cliched, but that only added to the charm. Plus the fact that Scott's direction was so kinetic and exciting that you didn't get much of a chance to laugh at the overwrought silliness of it all. Okay, so maye I did a bit. But silly or not it was still one thundering outta control train ride of fun. Toot toot!
Post a Comment