I’m actually trying to make my reviews in general more positively readable, rather than try to be sarcastic about everything. I could still be sarcastic, but trying to move to a more “constructive criticism” kind instead. Not sure if I’m making sense here due to the broken English, but yeah I’m sure you get the drift.

However, this movie is proving to be a little bit difficult to stick by what I just stated in the above paragraph. So lets just see how this goes shall we?

Directed by Tony Scott, featuring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine. If you had seen the trailer, you might have already guess what’s the whole storyline is about. It’s just basically a runaway train (read: runaway, not coaster), with about 40-50 cars, some of which are (yes you’ve guessed right) hazardous materials, or toxic materials. Reason behind this train being a runaway is that some dimwitted fella left his cab while the train was in motion to throw a switch, and couldn’t get back on. That fatass. And with that, the first thought that would come into any Singaporean NS-trained men’s mind would be, “got protocol, just follow. don’t cut corners”. Of course that always happens in the real world because there’s no such thing as signing extras, or court martial or DB for every small thing that you do wrong.

So Train 777 is on the loose. Speeding down the main line at full power. (Think Thomas the tank engine on steroids). There’s Connie Hooper (Rosario Dawson) who wants to manage the disaster, but there’s also her corporate boss Galvin (Kelvin Dunn) who tries to take control but every effort of his fails. The only two who may be able to save the runaway train, and the towns it’s headed for from disaster, is two train drivers, Frank Barnes (played by Denzel Washington) and Will Colston (played by Chris Pine). Both men having got off on the wrong foot over having to work with a huge generational gap, with one being wise and experienced while the other being young and cocky.

Scott did a pretty good job in trying to create something exciting to watch out of a simplistic storyline. I mean, truth be told, everything in the film is predictable. But Scott gave this 1970/80′s style disaster movie a more modernistic approach of directing and sequencing, good pacing too. Another good thing is that Unstoppable was giving a very realistic feel, more like you’re part of the disaster as well rather than watching it from a 3rd perspective. I couldn’t think of a scene where there was obvious CGI in it. A good break from the too-many-CGI-effects-movies we see nowadays.

The action sequence was good too. The camera never stays still (which is something I personally love about directors who keep their cameras physically moving most of the time), and Scott shoots trying to making action sequences as real as possible. Quick zoom ins, tracking trains at 70 miles per hour shots, very amateurish stuff that someone might have just shot off his iPhone, but it blends well with the story. On the down side, there’s only so many times you can use ariel shots of trains speeding down the countryside before it gets boring. There’s also the train full of excited kids that miraculously escapes the path of the speeding train headed directly at them. Though after it stops safely, that part of the story mystically disappears from the rest of the film. No word as to how the kids or the driver was after that. Maybe they were stuck in the siding forever.

There’s also this ridiculous scene where police try to shoot at the train to hit the emergency stop button, which is located right beside the fuel tank, using M-16s. Obviously that isn’t going to work, but maybe Americans just like to think with their guns, big or small. No pun intended.

Overall, it’s a hard storyline to carry over an hour and a half, but Scott did a great job in combining various elements to make it as interesting as possible. There’re plenty of scenes of trains, cabs which I’m sure will please any fan of trains.

Though, it definitely felt like watching Fox News for a whole hour and a half. That bit came out more and more as the film progressed, and somewhere before the ending, a whole huge full screen Fox News ID popped out. Cliche.

Rated: 2/5. Watch it if you have the time, if you love trains, and on Monday mornings where no one else is watching.

Daily posts are actually quite difficult I realize. But I suppose with the right effort, it could happen too. Anyhow, moving on.

Happy 21st Birthday to Gloria Goh! Awesome stuff. Official turning LEGAL. 18 was nonsense la, that’s technically not legal. That’s just an age where more adult laws apply to you.

Anywho. Nothing much happened. Just a lot of humid days, and a lot of sleepy timings, all at the wrong timings really. And for some reason I tried to freeze my MBP in an attempt to get it’s core temp lowered for faster performance.

Though unfortunately, all I got, was a 25degrees core temp (which is not too bad, just that it rose up again once it was immediately out of the freezer.). Plus a lot of water condensation which essentially rubbed off the dirt on the surface of the Mac. Resulting in me cleaning my MBP for the next half hour. Not a brilliant idea.

Though point, it kinda makes sense to have your machines work at a lower temperature, say a nice cold aircon room. It does makes sense. Just for laptops, gotta find a better way of lowering the core temp rather than using methods like “lifting your Mac up”, which does work to a certain 20% extent. And using those useless laptop mounts with fans powered by USB. I mean come on, seriously? Those ain’t gonna cut it.

Enough of Macs.

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Went to watch movie. Thanks to UOB’s brilliant offer of $6 weekday movie tickets at Cathay. It’s awesome. And I can purchase 20 at one go. Only that guy cheated my of my free popcorns. Don’t wanna kick a fuss la huh.

Okay first though, before watching the movie that is. Typical asian-made horror film. With the exception that it was in 3D. Or so they say.

And no I didn’t watch it in 3D, I watched it in 2D instead. But at some points you will still be able to tell the parts of the film that were deliberately edited to have that 3D effect. (No spoilers here).

Too draggy in the front part. Some attempt to make some cheesy humor parts. But it kinda didn’t work out the way it was supposed to. It was more lame than funny in a sense. Certain parts of the film didn’t really link up either. The characters (including extras) were definitely not in their individual characters in context with the film at certain points in time. Not to say that it was a bad film though.

Okay, so 3 couples from Hong Kong in holiday in Thailand find themselves caught up in a political riot in the city, rendering their airport closed, and forcing them to take refuge in a sleazy rundown hotel (cue bad humor).

So like in most of the Asian made horror films we’ve seen thus far, someone always goes missing, in this case the 3 guys, and the girls , particularly Rainie Yang, tries to find them. Together with another 3 local kids, two of whom mysteriously faints in the hotel corridor, and a dog who apparently can spot them monsters in the murk. Which of course came in rather handy.

Yet another staple in such films are ghostly women with long dark hair. What’s new right. But this one had a nicer face I must say. The only thing I didn’t really get what the messed up child who had a face and paws of a dog. Supposedly from messed up activities during the pregnancy. Which begs one to wonder, unless you were cursed to have a really horrible looking child, or said woman mated with a dog. That’s nasty stuff.

Though the story only kinda revives itself towards the end, with nicely sustained scenes from a strange computer generated fantasy world made up of giant toys. It’s a nice break from the far-to-common green surroundings, which I presume is a textbook color for “fear”. But before you know it, it all fades away and we’re back in the same hotel with a full story-book like explanation of the back-story ad the obligatory happy ending, somewhat.

It’s not a terrible film overall. They’re probably worse Asian made horror films than this. Really annoying draggy shots in the beginning, probably a ploy to make you wonder which part of the frame an odd looking object might come up from. It’s just a feeling that the Pangs have been kicking a dead horse around for quite some time now, there’s nothing really fresh other than the deliberately added 3D effects to throw a chair and a grenade in your face. Otherwise, just watch it to have your nuts woken up.

I have to say, if watched in 3D, it would be nice. Though this film probably wouldn’t make it to the big screens past Asia. It’s too textbook that it’s probably destined for home entertainment instead. Get ready to see this poster plastered on a DVD store near you.

Oh did I mention, this is probably the perfect movie for you couples to bring your spouses/partners to. Gives you a huge reason to be clinging on tightly to said partner. That of course doesn’t make sense if your partner is like me, who made a fool of himself laughing his way throughout the movie at every opportunity. Anyone was at the 14th Oct 1935hrs screening of Child’s Eye 2D at The Cathay? Yeah you probably heard me out loud.