UNSTOPPABLE – tony scott – 6.7 / 10

At this point, if you buy a ticket to a Tony Scott film, you ought to know exactly what you’re getting: a serviceable thriller, probably starring Denzel Washington as a put upon father or husband looking to repair his relationships with the women in his life, some frantic and totally unmotivated camera movement, lots of garish greens and blues, plenty of explosions, some groan-inducingly awful one-liners (‘It’s not a train; it’s a missile the size of the Chrysler Building.’) and a far too pat ending.  Unstoppable, of course, fulfills all of those criteria, but it does so in a much more entertaining fashion than most of Scott’s recent movies (The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Déjà Vu, Domino, etc.).  It’s as good as a film as we’re likely to ever see from Tony Scott.  And though that might only be slightly above average when compared to all other filmmakers, it’s nonetheless encouraging that Scott has reversed the trend his career had been taking.

127 HOURS – danny boyle – 5.8 / 10

With every successive film, Danny Boyle’s style has become more frantic and aggressive.  Trainspotting, made fifteen years ago, was fast-paced and full of quick cuts, but always in the service of the story.  28 Days Later, released in 2002, featured even faster cutting and introduced the swooping, shaky, handheld aesthetic that would become Boyle’s signature visual style.  But as with Trainspotting, this was largely justified by the story the film was telling.  In 2008, Boyle amped up his jittery, washed-out style even more for Slumdog Millionaire, one of the most aggressively in-your-face films ever made.  Though the story hardly seemed to warrant it, Slumdog Millionaire pulled every annoying trick in the book, turning the whole thing into a garish disaster.  It’s hard to imagine a more frenzied, hectic film.  Hard, that is, until you sit down to watch 127 Hours.