He’s a Runaway Trainer. He’s the…
Vidiot
Week of February 17, 2011
Derailments bring settlements. First up…
Unstoppable
If you drive your sweetheart around in a car that stalls, it’s imperative that you avoid railway crossings when there’s a runaway train about – unless, of course, you want to end up like a tragic 1950s teen love song.
Fortunately, young love goes unscratched in this thriller. Unfortunately, a number of Pennsylvania towns are not as fortunate.
When a runaway train carrying hazardous material escapes the rail yard, it’s up to an experienced engineer (Denzel Washington) and an inexperienced conductor (Chris Pine) to put aside their differences and slow it down.
Assisting them is a headstrong yardmaster (Rosario Dawson) who hopes to derail the locomotive in a sparsely populated area.
Though overflowing with taut action sequences, this retelling of an actual event lacks the character development and steady camera work needed to make a real impact.
Besides, wouldn’t it be easier to just get one of the train’s hobos to stop it? 0
Waiting for “Superman”
To avoid waiting for Superman, simply destroy train tracks spanning a ravine minutes before a trainload of school kids are scheduled to cross it.
And while the school children in this documentary are not on a doomed locomotive, they are headed for disaster.
By following five fledgling students (Daisy, Bianca, Emily, Francisco and Anthony) as they attempt to win admittance into an innovative school headed by a new breed of educator, Geoffrey Canada, filmmaker Davis Guggenheim puts the dysfunctional American school system under the microscope, exposing its pitfalls, prejudices and apathetic faculty that does little to inspire, let alone, educate.
While it takes direct aim at the teacher’s union, this sad, shocking snapshot of inner-city schools is not against instructors, but the ineptitude of an antiquated system.
In fact, if it isn’t fixed soon, the only career open to these lazy, uneducated students will be that of public school teacher. 0
***Ah Choo-Choo***
Runaway Train
The problem with escaping via train is that the tracks make it very easy for people to follow you.
Advice the fleeing convicts in this thriller should have heeded, before they hopped aboard this rogue iron horse.
Poised to break out of an Alaskan prison, an ex-bank-robber, Manny (Jon Voight), garners a handicap when the dim-witted laundry worker helping him escape, Buck (Eric Roberts), wants to come along.
Stowing away on a southbound train, the two cons later learn that the engineer has died and that their train is headed towards a chemical plant.
What's more, there’s a female stowaway aboard (Rebecca De Mornay) and a hardened warden on their track.
Written by Akira Kurosawa, Runaway Train is the zenith of runaway train movies: the characters are rich and the action is gripping.
Furthermore, it proves that there are other things to do on a train besides solve murder mysteries.
He’s Keepin' it Rail. He’s the…
Vidiot
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