À fond de train

Tony Scott poursuit dans la veine du thriller ferroviaire, troussant un suspense fort efficace sur le plan technique, en dépit d'un dénouement connu, histoire vraie oblige.

If it had been made in 1986 this film would be one big cliché. Instead, Unstoppable is a surprisingly taut and entertaining train thriller which takes some of those old ideas and breathes modern life into them. Trains are unlikely to become the new vampires, but you won't regret taking a trip down these tracks.

Mr. Scott directs some of the biggest action machines in Hollywood, some with Mr. Washington and some certainly more entertaining than a hydraulic excavator. The two men have made five movies together, including this new one, which suggests that they have developed a camaraderie along with an apparent fondness for trains.

If you've seen the trailers, you know exactly where this film is headed. If you haven't, you'll know its destination about five minutes in. Still, with the recent dearth of good action flicks, Unstoppable gathers steam with a plot that's predictable but plausible and a few old-school-filmmaking flourishes that churn the picture forward.

However, the stunts and the actors elevate this, making it a solid old-school action flick that can stand proudly alongside train action classics.

Unstoppable porte bien la marque de Tony Scott : tape à l'oeil et fortement oubliable, comme c'était le cas de ses précédents Déjà Vu, Domino, Man on Fire et la liste est longue. Peut-être devrait-il commencer à travailler avec un scénariste digne de ce nom.

You can't go wrong with a runaway train device. You just can't. The attraction is downright primal. All that steel and horsepower careering out of control on linear tracks isn't just the stuff crash fantasies are made of, it's one of the original cinematic spectacles. That said, Unstoppable doesn't feature a single virgin fastened to the tracks, or even a small child nonchalantly playing in the kill zone.

Bien qu'on connaisse l'issue du drame, Scott maintient adroitement l'attention du spectateur, même s'il a tendance à appuyer inutilement quelques effets-chocs à grand renfort de musique pétaradante. Aussi, on se serait bien passé des mélodrames maladroitement amenés en cours de route.