Unstoppable

Rating: Null/10 (21 October 2002)

Spoilers herein.
Here's a conundrum: the vacation action thrillers that star unkillable heros themselves die a quick death. Even a short time later they are limp. Seen "Speed" lately? Each is a matter of repetition with the heat turned up a very little, so the next guy always makes it obsolete.
But not this one. I've stopped by every few years, and it never seems dated. (Well, maybe the pseudo-terrorist plot.) But its just in a whole different category than any Arnie movie. They fade fast.
I think it is a matter of originality, pacing and the stance that Willis invented. The pacing really is a black art, and to judge from McTeirnan's subsequent missteps, was an accident. But I have to give Bruce Willis a lot of credit.
We live in an era when we expect nothing to be done straight. Some ironic coloring is expected, some compact between the film and the audience that gives us traction on which to build fun. Sly, Arnie, Chuck and those others take it all so seriously. Bruce, and later Mel (with less intelligence) would first establish their character with the audience as their man, their representative in the action.
Then, once in a while, he'd all but look at the camera and say "ain't this a gas, watch this!"
I don't pretend that Bruce is a fine actor, but he certainly reinvented film. And in his own way as much as Brando. This is his "streetcar."
It is important in the history of film, and in how we as a society deal with abstraction. And it is still fun, with the "cancel Christmas" guy.
Ted's evaluation: 3 of 4 -- worth watching