Unstoppable

The action begins after some schmuck steps off the train to switch tracks and the thing rolls on without him, loaded with all sorts of toxic, flammable chemicals and roaring along a collision course with a yard stacked with fuel tanks in the middle of a Pennsylvania town. The train takes it upon itself to slip into high gear and then so does Tony Scott’s blue-collar white-knuckler. Meanwhile, in another locomotive down the tracks, Denzel Washington and Chris Pine are a couple of rail-yard workers having a bad day that gets much worse after yard dispatcher Rosario Dawson gets on the horn and lets them know what the stakes are. After all other attempts at bringing the freight train back home fail, it’s up to our two working-class heroes to swing their locomotive around and roar after the rolling disaster-in-the-making. There’s nothing complicated about Unstoppable. It’s a noisy, slam-bang thriller that is perfectly happy delivering what it promises without too many bells and whistles, and it does a great job of it. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13