Unstoppable is set in Baltimore where ex secret service CIA agent Dean Cage (Wesley Snipes) is trying to adjust to normal civilian life after his best mate Scott (Cristian Solimeno) was killed in action in Bosnia. Scott's wife & police detective Amy Knight (Jacqueline Obradors) is trying to help Dean, while waiting to meet Amy in a coffee shop Dean is mistaken for a federal agent & is injected with an experimental hallucinogenic drug named EX which has been developed by the US Government but stolen by rogue agent Sullivan (Stuart Wilson) along with the antidote, anyone injected with EX is easily brainwashed but the drug is fatal after several hours. Dean manages to escape from Sullivan & his men & Amy uses her police contacts to discover the truth & try to help Dean who is now a wanted man as he slowly dies from the drug, Dean's only hope is to face Sullivan again & get the antidote...
Also known as Nine Lives in Europe this Aruba American co-production was directed by David Crason & is yet another Millennium Films action flick featuring some has been Hollywood action star, in this case it's Snipes who really hasn't made a decent film in years if we are honest & while Unstoppable isn't necessarily unwatchable it's hardly any sort of masterpiece. To be fair to Unstoppable there's the potential for a decent little action thriller here, the idea that someone is injected with some drug that will kill him in a few hours & thus has to find an antidote is fine as the pace never lets up & the stakes are high but Unstoppable is no Crank (2006) & it has some major problems that prevent me from being able to recommend it. As a cheap rental or if you catch it on telly for free then Unstoppable is alright but it suffers from basic plot holes & a story that if you think about it for any length of time is just laughable, for instance there's this powerful yet fatal drug that is developed by the US Government & the whole lot is stolen by one guy as well as the antidote. We never find out how Sullivan manages to steal a top secret drug & most baffling of all the US Government doesn't seem to have any of the antidote & I just sat there thinking why doesn't the Government just make more antidote? It developed the stuff & made it in the first place, why not make more antidote? The problem is then solved surely? I guess we wouldn't have a film then would we? Why doesn't the Government CIA agents just kill Sullivan & his men? If Sullivan is dead he then can't sell the drugs to anyone, right? Problem solved, again. The number of coincidences that occur to propel Snipes into the plot is just silly, from bad timing to mistaken identity to general incompetence. At 90 odd minutes it moves along at a decent pace, the story is alright if poorly scripted & the character's are functional too. Unstoppable isn't a bad film to be honest it's just not brilliant either, it's a time waster. No more, no less.
The action scenes in Unstoppable are also better than the usual direct to video fare, the fights are good, the shoot-outs are decent & there's even a cool scene involving a huge truck swerving off a bride & exploding at the bottom. The film takes place over one night & is quite dark & tense at times & it's all competent as I said but never that gripping or involving. There's an early scene in which a guy on a stretcher gets run over by a huge truck & his dismembered body is seen a few times. The film switches between reality & Snipes hallucination, for instance when a bad guy says he is on fire Snipes actually thinks he is & a lot more could have been done with the premise other than have Snipes flashback to his time in Bosnia.
Filmed in Bulgaria although set in Baltimore, the production values are decent enough & it's well made. The acting is alright, Snipes looks bored while Obradors played a cop in seventy five episodes of NYPD Blue.
Unstoppable is a pretty decent little action thriller, certainly by direct to video fare standards Unstoppable is alright but at the same time it's nothing that memorable or amazing. Good but not great.
Also known as Nine Lives in Europe this Aruba American co-production was directed by David Crason & is yet another Millennium Films action flick featuring some has been Hollywood action star, in this case it's Snipes who really hasn't made a decent film in years if we are honest & while Unstoppable isn't necessarily unwatchable it's hardly any sort of masterpiece. To be fair to Unstoppable there's the potential for a decent little action thriller here, the idea that someone is injected with some drug that will kill him in a few hours & thus has to find an antidote is fine as the pace never lets up & the stakes are high but Unstoppable is no Crank (2006) & it has some major problems that prevent me from being able to recommend it. As a cheap rental or if you catch it on telly for free then Unstoppable is alright but it suffers from basic plot holes & a story that if you think about it for any length of time is just laughable, for instance there's this powerful yet fatal drug that is developed by the US Government & the whole lot is stolen by one guy as well as the antidote. We never find out how Sullivan manages to steal a top secret drug & most baffling of all the US Government doesn't seem to have any of the antidote & I just sat there thinking why doesn't the Government just make more antidote? It developed the stuff & made it in the first place, why not make more antidote? The problem is then solved surely? I guess we wouldn't have a film then would we? Why doesn't the Government CIA agents just kill Sullivan & his men? If Sullivan is dead he then can't sell the drugs to anyone, right? Problem solved, again. The number of coincidences that occur to propel Snipes into the plot is just silly, from bad timing to mistaken identity to general incompetence. At 90 odd minutes it moves along at a decent pace, the story is alright if poorly scripted & the character's are functional too. Unstoppable isn't a bad film to be honest it's just not brilliant either, it's a time waster. No more, no less.
The action scenes in Unstoppable are also better than the usual direct to video fare, the fights are good, the shoot-outs are decent & there's even a cool scene involving a huge truck swerving off a bride & exploding at the bottom. The film takes place over one night & is quite dark & tense at times & it's all competent as I said but never that gripping or involving. There's an early scene in which a guy on a stretcher gets run over by a huge truck & his dismembered body is seen a few times. The film switches between reality & Snipes hallucination, for instance when a bad guy says he is on fire Snipes actually thinks he is & a lot more could have been done with the premise other than have Snipes flashback to his time in Bosnia.
Filmed in Bulgaria although set in Baltimore, the production values are decent enough & it's well made. The acting is alright, Snipes looks bored while Obradors played a cop in seventy five episodes of NYPD Blue.
Unstoppable is a pretty decent little action thriller, certainly by direct to video fare standards Unstoppable is alright but at the same time it's nothing that memorable or amazing. Good but not great.