The two men seem to compliment each other with Denzel toning down the over-the-top style that Scott brought to films like Top Gun and True Romance (and was set free like a bull on a movie set in Domino) and Scott helping Denzel find new shades to his acting. In fact, a lot of directors use the same actors in the same way over and over again, like a manager starting the same striker game after game. Tony Scott has directed Denzel Washington three times at three different stages in the actor's career and found a different Denzel in each one.
Even with all of his other hit movies, you can use the three Scott/Washington collaborations as a good guide to Denzel's filmography over the last ten years. Using a reference from Scott's history, they're like Maverick and Iceman at the end of Top Gun, making each other's work better every time they take flight. Yet, at their fifth movies, The Unstoppable, I don’t really think that Scott do justice for a decent performance put in by Denzel (and Chris Pine).
Indeed, from the very beginning, I was surprised when Scott announced his next project after The Taking of Pelham 123 would be another train-based film and that it would again star Washington. But the joke’s on them (err, us) because this film is a 8000 tons of suspense and action-filled momentum. And then it is, “..a fast, slick, and exhilarating movie that never strives to be anything more than solid entertainment..”.
In the end, this “stoppable” plot, eventually lead me comes to conclusion, that the movie's best scenes are those that focus on Frank and Will's routine; the getting-to-know-you beats, all before the train-o-calypse starts. In a nice bit of business, Frank is the engineer; Will is the conductor. But it's Frank's train, and the fun Denzel and Pine have playing off this aspect almost makes you wish the movie was more about their ordinary backgrounds of this true story instead of the extraordinary events they get caught in the middle of.
But where's the fun in that rite? :D
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