Wesley Snipes fans expecting a fightfest will probably be disappointed with "Unstoppable" / "Nine Lives", since the martial arts quotient is very limited. But those who prefer their action films to be driven by their stories and have a touch of originality in them will probably like this more. The originality comes mostly in the form of the hallucinogenic effects of the drug that Snipes gets injected with, and the ways director David Carson merges illusions with reality. Snipes is believably haunted by his war memories, just as he is believably disoriented by the drug; an action star like, say, Steven Seagal, would hardly be able to handle this role. Playing a police detective who is also Snipes' girlfriend, Jacqueline Obradors is uncompromisingly tough, foul-mouthed and occasionally even unpleasant, and she handles it all with conviction. And Kim Coates always makes a dependable villain. The film also contains one of the funniest lines I've heard in a long time, precisely because it's so unexpected: "Hey, have you seen my pony?" (**1/2)
34 Reviews
Not a bad movie
drmkeeper29 August 2004
I like almost all Snipes' action movies. This one is not exception. Not a bad movie. Film tells us about some CIA guys who create some drug which affect human brain in a special way. People who take a shot of this drug starting see hallucinations
And these guys lookin' for a FBI agent, and wanna interrogate him with this drug. They give an injection to Cage (Snipes) by mistake, as they thought that he was FBI agent. They just didn't know that he is not an agent, he is ex-military man. Cage starts seeing his illusions and thinks that he is still at war. Now he is trying to stay alive
Not a bad movie. I like the plot, but it seems to me, that the script could be much better. I got a feeling that the screenwriter did this script during couple of days. But if you like other action movies with Snipes, I guess you'll like this one too. It's worth seeing, but only once. 3 of 5.
Look In Snipes' Eyes...?
tarbosh2200012 May 2010
"Unstoppable" is another assembly-line action movie from Snipes. This time around Wesley plays Dean Cage who is (of course) a CIA agent. A long time ago, he was kidnapped and tortured in a prison camp. He's mistakenly the target of Sullivan (Stuart Wilson), an evil drug maker. Cage is then injected with a drug that makes him hallucinate. If you look into Snipes' eyes, you can see he doesn't care about the movie.
He still puts in a professional performance though. It looks like he's forced to do his martial arts. The explosion on the highway is obviously green screened. Overall, it's not a bad movie, it's just lazy.
For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com
He still puts in a professional performance though. It looks like he's forced to do his martial arts. The explosion on the highway is obviously green screened. Overall, it's not a bad movie, it's just lazy.
For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com
Absurd and Awful Screenplay
claudio_carvalho24 September 2005
The deranged military and former CIA agent Dean Cage (Wesley Snipes) is in a rehab program, trying to forget the traumatic loss of his best friend Scott in Bosnia. When he dates with his girl-friend and Scott's sister, Detective Amy knight (Jacqueline Obradors), in a dinning restaurant, he is mistakenly taken as being the CIA agent that is investigating the robbery of the military experiment EX by a man called Sullivan (Stuart Wilson). He is injected with the drug and abducted by the thieves. Amy has six hours to find the also stolen antidote and save Dean's life.
"Unstoppable" is a movie with an absurd and awful screenplay. The story has so many flaws and ridiculous situations that become amazing how an actor like Wesley Snipes accepts to participate of such a crap. The "hero" jumps through a window in an asylum, in front of the police cars, and nobody cares. There are lots of shots inside the hospital and nobody hears. The drugged "hero", with cloudy vision, kills the men in the helicopter with precise shoots, while the place is surrounded by FBI agents that do nothing. I could spend the afternoon listing holes in this flick. The cast is also awful and miscast: for example, the Caucasian Jacqueline Obradors, with her horrible tone of voice, has no chemistry with Wesley Snipes. I believe that even in a rainy and cold Saturday afternoon this movie does not work. My vote is three.
Title (Brazil): "Fugindo do Passado" ("Escaping from the Past")
"Unstoppable" is a movie with an absurd and awful screenplay. The story has so many flaws and ridiculous situations that become amazing how an actor like Wesley Snipes accepts to participate of such a crap. The "hero" jumps through a window in an asylum, in front of the police cars, and nobody cares. There are lots of shots inside the hospital and nobody hears. The drugged "hero", with cloudy vision, kills the men in the helicopter with precise shoots, while the place is surrounded by FBI agents that do nothing. I could spend the afternoon listing holes in this flick. The cast is also awful and miscast: for example, the Caucasian Jacqueline Obradors, with her horrible tone of voice, has no chemistry with Wesley Snipes. I believe that even in a rainy and cold Saturday afternoon this movie does not work. My vote is three.
Title (Brazil): "Fugindo do Passado" ("Escaping from the Past")
Ordinary junked up, messy action/drama
=G=3 June 2005
"Unstoppable" is an underwhelming action/drama with Snipes as a retired Special Forces badass who is unwittingly injected with a powerful hallucinogen which will result in his death unless he and his detective girlfriend (Obradors) can get their hands on the antidote before the end of the flick. A very ordinary B-flick with a messy plot, this film spends its time with Snipes hallucinating when it's convenient and not when it's not while the rest of the cast (CIA, cops, bad guys) goes through the motions with the kind of enthusiasm you expect from a crew who just wants to get paid and go home. Messy, rote, uninspired, and a big step down for Snipes who hasn't exactly been at the top of the A-list these day, "Unstoppable" is not recommendable even for action junkies. Don't waste your time. (C)
Not brilliant but not too bad either.
poolandrews18 June 2010
Warning: Spoilers
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.
average plus B movie
dromasca26 November 2005
Warning: Spoilers
This movie was made by a team of beginners, almost everybody is unknown in the team, with the exception of Wesley Snipes. It seems to be done on a low budget, but it is ambitious, well paced, and frankly speaking I do not understand the negative reactions of many of the viewers who commented on this film. The story is in the post-war trauma genre, with the principal hero getting caught into a mistaken identity case, involved in some psychotic drugs exchange, and injected himself with the drug, which leads to personality control and is fatal if an anti-dote is not found in the next few hours. Sure, there are a lot of coincidences around to enable the story, and the film has its dose of incredible gunshots and violent fist punching, but it's not worse than in most of the blockbusters in recent years. What counts and is good in my opinion is the fact that the story is well-filmed, characters are credible and the relationship between the main character, his girl-friend including the follow-ups of the war experiences of the hero are human and credible. Acting is OK, no good special effects to mention, but the interest on what is going on is kept awake all over. The film does not seem to have been released in cinemas in the US, may have gone directly to video and DVD, and I am wondering why. Anyway, for action films lovers it's an average plus installment, not to be avoided.
Who the hell marries their best friend's sister anyway?
Anonymous_Maxine7 December 2004
Warning: Spoilers
Unstoppable is one of those movies that people immediately attack, calling it Wesley Snipes descent into video land and such. These are not entirely unfounded arguments, but I have to suggest that the badness of this movie may be magnified at least a little bit because it is so overshadowed by Blade 3 which, given the previews, looks to be a spectacular action movie. I have a feeling that Blade 3 will be something of a minor letdown, in the same way that The Matrix Revolutions was not quite as incredible as you thought, but still a cool action/sci-fi movie. Enter Unstoppable, and you have a sometimes boring and sometimes downright stupid action movie being given to fans who are just looking for something to tide them over until they can get another dose of gleeful vampire bloodletting.
The movie starts with a strange situation that turns into a good one. A bunch of guys have another guy strapped to a gurney in an ambulance racing down the street. The guy strapped down manages not only to kick the ambulance's rear doors open, but also to get away from the guys interrogating him, succeeding in rolling his gurney out the back of the ambulance, onto the road, and into the path of a tailgating truck. Oops. Pretty goofy, but at the later investigation, an arriving investigator finds out what happened and asks where the ambulance is, and learns that it didn't stop. I have to admit that's a pretty clever way to reveal that there were probably no EMTs in that ambulance.
There is later another similar impressive scene when the one guy captured from the diner shooting finally decides to cooperate. He tells Amy, the interrogating officer, that he will cooperate only with her, after having refused outright during the interrogation room, and while now being led away by FBI agents. He yells to her that these guys are not FBI and he'll talk to her, and ten seconds later several people have been shot and he's dead. Doesn't sound very impressive in writing, but these are actually some pretty clever scenes.
On the other hand, they are balanced out by some serious blunders, like the gigantic cliché of the rivalry between the police and the FBI. The only people who fight like they do in this movie are children, cats and dogs, and the FBI and CIA.
Take the diner scene, for example. Dean Cage, played by Wesley Snipes and not to be confused with Nicholas Cage or Dean Cain, goes to a diner to meet his girlfriend after leaving early from a self-help group for war veterans suffering from post traumatic stress. Turns out he just went to the wrong diner and sat at the wrong table at the wrong time, because there are a whole group of guys outside waiting to drug and capture someone who looks enough like him for them not to be able to tell the difference.
At first you may hesitate to believe that they could so easily misidentify their target, but the ineptitude with which they handle their operation allows me to believe all sorts of stupidity. One guy, for example, is so bad at being inconspicuous that Cage, while merely looking around waiting for his girlfriend, is able to spot him from inside a well lit diner while the guy is standing on the other side of the street at night. And if that wasn't bad enough, consider the sound guy, my favorite. After learning that his buddy has been spotted, he looks at Cage in the diner and sees that he is looking right at him, that he's been spotted, too.
Hey buddy, this is just a suggestion, but maybe you were spotted because of that LASER-GUIDED MICROPHONE you're using. A laser sight on a shotgun microphone is about the dumbest thing I've ever heard of, but that's not enough for this guy. He has to train the laser onto the window directly in front of Cage, so that he glances casually at the window, wondering why there's a little red light dancing there. Given his decorated military background, I would have thought he would have reacted a little differently to a laser sight pointed at him. And the best part was that when he curiously tapped the window, the sound guy gets such a loud roar in his headphones that he just about falls out of the car.
Wesley Snipes turns in a satisfactory performance, except for any scene where he thinks he's back in Bosnia and his friend is being tortured in front of him. His pleas for his captors to let him down and don't burn him and don't hurt him are about as emotional and frantic as if he was reading his shopping list. Is that really how he spoke to his captors when he was in Bosnia trying to get them to let his friend down? On the other hand, his hallucinations were done quite well. Throughout the movie there are some good scenes put together where Cage slips in and out of reality, thinking that the guys trying to interrogate him in the present time are his captors from Bosnia. With the exception of the scene where his girlfriend disappears in front of his eyes in the shower (I disappeared people on screen better than that when I was making short films at Fresno City College), a lot of these are actually done well.
Outside of the mistaken identity, the plot revolves around a top-secret drug that makes people completely susceptible to suggestion and also causes total synaptic melt-down within 6-8 hours of injection. Cage was injected in the diner early in the movie, and spends the rest of the movie reeling from the effects of it, while his girlfriend Amy, a highly overacting Jacqueline Obradors, tries to figure out what happened and then get the antidote. The old premise of getting the antidote before the poison kills the hero is a recipe for fake tension, but the closing scene is actually done pretty well here, too.
In the closing scene, the bad guy is also injected with the drug after the sale of a case of thousands of capsules of the drug and thousands of capsules of the antigen goes wrong. As Cage reaches for the single capsule of antigen on the ground in front of him, the whole case of the drug spills over, hiding it among thousands and thousands of capsules of the drug. Once the bad guy gets injected, he joins in the search, frantically grabbing handfuls of capsules looking for the right one, having forgotten that he has 6-8 hours before he really has to worry, as well as the fact that there is a huge case full of thousands and thousands of doses of the antidote sitting right there in his truck.
Another thing that this movie really has going against it is that the action scenes are just ludicrous. At one point, a guy is in a helicopter shooting a freaking gatling gun at people. He literally shoots tens of thousands of rounds and hits nothing. Cage responds, shooting three rounds from a handgun and succeeding in killing the guy and blowing up the helicopter. At another point a guy fires an Uzi at Amy and Cage from probably six feet away, spraying a stream of bullets at them and missing completely, or at least long enough for her to grab a handgun and make short work of him. What was he shooting at that allowed him to miss from that range?
So clearly, the movie has a lot of really bad but also some pretty good stuff in it, just unfortunately not quite as much good as bad. The two almost balance each other out, but still leave it below average. It is not, I have to say, as bad as many people have called it (the song over the end credits is worse than the entire movie, for example), but there is certainly a reason that it went straight to video. Maybe even several reasons.
The movie starts with a strange situation that turns into a good one. A bunch of guys have another guy strapped to a gurney in an ambulance racing down the street. The guy strapped down manages not only to kick the ambulance's rear doors open, but also to get away from the guys interrogating him, succeeding in rolling his gurney out the back of the ambulance, onto the road, and into the path of a tailgating truck. Oops. Pretty goofy, but at the later investigation, an arriving investigator finds out what happened and asks where the ambulance is, and learns that it didn't stop. I have to admit that's a pretty clever way to reveal that there were probably no EMTs in that ambulance.
There is later another similar impressive scene when the one guy captured from the diner shooting finally decides to cooperate. He tells Amy, the interrogating officer, that he will cooperate only with her, after having refused outright during the interrogation room, and while now being led away by FBI agents. He yells to her that these guys are not FBI and he'll talk to her, and ten seconds later several people have been shot and he's dead. Doesn't sound very impressive in writing, but these are actually some pretty clever scenes.
On the other hand, they are balanced out by some serious blunders, like the gigantic cliché of the rivalry between the police and the FBI. The only people who fight like they do in this movie are children, cats and dogs, and the FBI and CIA.
Take the diner scene, for example. Dean Cage, played by Wesley Snipes and not to be confused with Nicholas Cage or Dean Cain, goes to a diner to meet his girlfriend after leaving early from a self-help group for war veterans suffering from post traumatic stress. Turns out he just went to the wrong diner and sat at the wrong table at the wrong time, because there are a whole group of guys outside waiting to drug and capture someone who looks enough like him for them not to be able to tell the difference.
At first you may hesitate to believe that they could so easily misidentify their target, but the ineptitude with which they handle their operation allows me to believe all sorts of stupidity. One guy, for example, is so bad at being inconspicuous that Cage, while merely looking around waiting for his girlfriend, is able to spot him from inside a well lit diner while the guy is standing on the other side of the street at night. And if that wasn't bad enough, consider the sound guy, my favorite. After learning that his buddy has been spotted, he looks at Cage in the diner and sees that he is looking right at him, that he's been spotted, too.
Hey buddy, this is just a suggestion, but maybe you were spotted because of that LASER-GUIDED MICROPHONE you're using. A laser sight on a shotgun microphone is about the dumbest thing I've ever heard of, but that's not enough for this guy. He has to train the laser onto the window directly in front of Cage, so that he glances casually at the window, wondering why there's a little red light dancing there. Given his decorated military background, I would have thought he would have reacted a little differently to a laser sight pointed at him. And the best part was that when he curiously tapped the window, the sound guy gets such a loud roar in his headphones that he just about falls out of the car.
Wesley Snipes turns in a satisfactory performance, except for any scene where he thinks he's back in Bosnia and his friend is being tortured in front of him. His pleas for his captors to let him down and don't burn him and don't hurt him are about as emotional and frantic as if he was reading his shopping list. Is that really how he spoke to his captors when he was in Bosnia trying to get them to let his friend down? On the other hand, his hallucinations were done quite well. Throughout the movie there are some good scenes put together where Cage slips in and out of reality, thinking that the guys trying to interrogate him in the present time are his captors from Bosnia. With the exception of the scene where his girlfriend disappears in front of his eyes in the shower (I disappeared people on screen better than that when I was making short films at Fresno City College), a lot of these are actually done well.
Outside of the mistaken identity, the plot revolves around a top-secret drug that makes people completely susceptible to suggestion and also causes total synaptic melt-down within 6-8 hours of injection. Cage was injected in the diner early in the movie, and spends the rest of the movie reeling from the effects of it, while his girlfriend Amy, a highly overacting Jacqueline Obradors, tries to figure out what happened and then get the antidote. The old premise of getting the antidote before the poison kills the hero is a recipe for fake tension, but the closing scene is actually done pretty well here, too.
In the closing scene, the bad guy is also injected with the drug after the sale of a case of thousands of capsules of the drug and thousands of capsules of the antigen goes wrong. As Cage reaches for the single capsule of antigen on the ground in front of him, the whole case of the drug spills over, hiding it among thousands and thousands of capsules of the drug. Once the bad guy gets injected, he joins in the search, frantically grabbing handfuls of capsules looking for the right one, having forgotten that he has 6-8 hours before he really has to worry, as well as the fact that there is a huge case full of thousands and thousands of doses of the antidote sitting right there in his truck.
Another thing that this movie really has going against it is that the action scenes are just ludicrous. At one point, a guy is in a helicopter shooting a freaking gatling gun at people. He literally shoots tens of thousands of rounds and hits nothing. Cage responds, shooting three rounds from a handgun and succeeding in killing the guy and blowing up the helicopter. At another point a guy fires an Uzi at Amy and Cage from probably six feet away, spraying a stream of bullets at them and missing completely, or at least long enough for her to grab a handgun and make short work of him. What was he shooting at that allowed him to miss from that range?
So clearly, the movie has a lot of really bad but also some pretty good stuff in it, just unfortunately not quite as much good as bad. The two almost balance each other out, but still leave it below average. It is not, I have to say, as bad as many people have called it (the song over the end credits is worse than the entire movie, for example), but there is certainly a reason that it went straight to video. Maybe even several reasons.
Pretty good
jpintar16 February 2005
I rented out this movie expecting a piece of junk. I actually got an involving movie. Wesley Snipes is good in this movie. The girl who plays his love interest (who appears on NYPD Blue and I can't think of her name) is also good. Snipes plays a former special forces agent who is mistaken for an assassin. He is injected with a drug that makes him hallucinate. His girlfriend is a cop who is the person he can trust with people trying to kill him left and right. This movie was obviously made on a low budget and it shows sometimes with some fake looking special effects. The plot comes dangerously close to idiot plot (where the movie would be over immediately if everybody wasn't an idiot)at times. However, you can't help but get yourself involved with this story. This beats the disappointing Blade: Trinity, which ended the series on a low note. This is worth a DVD rental. 7/10
Robert L. Taylor III's AONN Movie Review
aonn2 January 2005
Slightly low-budget, but much better than a stupid vampire movie. And again, not the world-class production of the Art of War, but a decent sit-down and storyline. The big-set effects seem to have been saved for the final scenes, but nevertheless a chilling premise.
This is another freaky tale of mind manipulation weapons development and attempts at proliferation, thereof.
Don't go out of your way, but if you do, it's certainly a decent fix for any action movie buff.
Die-hard Wesley Snipes fans won't want to miss this one, however. Somewhere near the beginning of the movie, Snipes who plays Dean Cage, U.S. Army black ops soldier serial # 190405243, reminds us that he is one of the most dangerous international-level fighters both on and off camera. Thus, the hand-to-hand combat sequences alone are worth the time spent in this regard.
This is another freaky tale of mind manipulation weapons development and attempts at proliferation, thereof.
Don't go out of your way, but if you do, it's certainly a decent fix for any action movie buff.
Die-hard Wesley Snipes fans won't want to miss this one, however. Somewhere near the beginning of the movie, Snipes who plays Dean Cage, U.S. Army black ops soldier serial # 190405243, reminds us that he is one of the most dangerous international-level fighters both on and off camera. Thus, the hand-to-hand combat sequences alone are worth the time spent in this regard.
great action
danieljakubovic9 May 2005
i loved this movie, i thought it was really cool, a little different then the average action film, deeper at times and good plot. loved the character and especially the Flashback section when they want to burn Scott in the prisoners interrogating room ( the lead character's best friend ) how it goes from reality to what he sees in his mind. strong scene, didn't expect it... it really makes u get into Wesley's character. i liked also the character of Wesley's girl...kicked ass. there r really good action scenes and interesting scenes, a bit weird to the good side at times which again makes it a little different then the average action flick. kicks ass!!! i recommend it. Sabah
Exciting!
bojanharnovski1 February 2011
Sometimes you watch an action movie that kicks your adrenaline level up to the ceiling, and sometimes you feel nothing when the movie ends. Good action in the "Unstoppable" will get you excited and hold you until it's over. Snipes makes an average action movie a much better one, but Obradors makes it somewhat difficult to watch. She is simply so beautiful in this movie that it made me hard to follow the story! Thus, she draws too much of a viewer's attention. The Coates-Sheppard duo makes it an excellent combo for the bad guys pack in this movie. They are much more comic than scary. The only thing that bothers me in this movie is the "Bosnia" part. Is that possible that Hollywood movie-makers can no longer find another villain nest? Is there really such a lack of imagination among them? Overall, this is an exciting movie with good actors, decent plot and suitable turns. Perfect for watching once. Enjoy!
Wesley's descent into video land, Unstoppable?
supertom-31 November 2004
Unstoppable is without doubt a blotch in Snipe's career. Here is a problem at the moment for Snipes. He has firmly established himself as an action star. Action films were dying a death throughout the mid-90's to the turn of the millennium but there has been a comeback with some good action films. There has not been a comeback for the action star though. We have the likes of Matt Damon, his less talented buddy Ben, Will Smith and young pretty boys like Paul Walker in trashy teen action films where the soundtrack and vehicles are the main draw. All the quote 'Action Men' are not pulling in the punters like they used to, they need a hook. Arnold needed to don his best leathers and cyborg strut to make money and Wesley has only smelt box office sweetness in his action man status with the Blade series. Snipes was at one point the black mans action hero, a seminal cult symbol amongst black cinema goers and good too. Hollywood although as multicultural as ever still would seem to orientate towards white audiences and also of course towards men, hence there are few interesting roles written for men of non-Caucasian heritage and also women, but importantly the figures are better. Still, however the films of Spike Lee and co although important are still essentially cult movies. But what I believe is that Snipe's draw as an action hero will subside even more now that big Willy grabs his pistol fairly regularly and now of course the Rock is laying the Smackdown on cinema goers. The Blade series has done good business but it's because it is blockbuster, comic book stuff. The audience figures come more from the marketing than who is in it. This is proved really by the fact that outside of the Blade series Wesley has not had exceptional box office receipts in his action vehicles, a mixture of mainly an African-American audience and the fact that the films were inferior to the ones Sly and Arnold were doing.
I'm a fan of Snipes, he's a great actor given the right roles and I truly believe he cursed his career all those years ago by saying yes to doing Passenger 57. Action films tend to waste him and since then the good roles have somewhat dried up compared to his golden period in his Spike Lee collaborations, in White Men Can't Jump, New Jack City and King Of New York. Initially he balanced his action movies by doing independent and TV movies as well, to have more challenging roles but looking at his next lot of movies, all action based, it seems he may have made his bed for good and is now content to lye in it. Not only is Unstoppable a bad action movie but it represents a real decline in financial backing and faith in Snipes ability to pull in an audience on his own. At a meagre $15million budget this is cheaper than the latest Van Damme and Seagal efforts and the film, although getting a limited release on Oct 30th, is basically straight to video and in quality it's not even one of the better. I have seen more enjoyable efforts this year form Seagal, Van Damme and Lundgren all who lack the undisputed talent that Snipes has. Directed by Television maestro David Carson whose only previous big screen gig was directing the fairly enjoyable Star Trek: Generations, although that was only enjoyable for seeing Picard and Kirk team up and for laughing every time Shatner opened his mouth to say a line. The film looks cheap, sounds cheap and suffers from the restraints heaped upon those DTV action gods. You sit and watch and feel this shouldn't happen to Snipes, who is going through the motions.
The plot has more holes than the holiest Swiss-cheese on earth and involves government conspiracies and comes across in some respects as a low grade Bourne movie (Snipes plays a guy hunted down by spooks while his mind is fried to s**t) it even has a supporting role in it for Adewale Agbaje who was in Bourne Identity. Also co-starring is Kim Coates. I won't go into the in's and out's of the plot because my head would start to hurt, but it involves a drug that cause the recipient to have strange visions that seem real and which allow for someone to control their mind by manipulating them in their visions, they will also die after a certain period of time. Snipes is mistaken for someone else and injected with this stuff in order for Coates and his fellow disbanded CIA men to retrieve important information about a deal for a whole big batch of the stuff. They don't realize they have the wrong man and it is left to Snipes girlfriend (Jacqueline Obradors) to work out what is going on and help her bloke.
So the plot is all over the place but this is an action movie, does it have enough well choreographed carnage to save it? Not really. The film in truth is boring. The action is flat and the direction, merely serviceable. There's some martial arts stuff but is all to brief. Those expecting Bladesque batterings of the baddies can think again. All in all this is a film that is a let down on so many levels. The main thing is that Snipes should have said no when someone put the script on his lap, I imagine it had grubby fingerprints and jam stains on it or something, or came in an X-files folder with scribblings all over the front.
I expect we have all heard the rumours that Snipes is a pain to work with, often turning up late, going missing and treating co-stars disrespectfully and how much of these rumours are true, we won't know for sure. You have to wonder though just whether his recent career track record shows that big name directors no longer want to work with him. He has worked with greats over the years who seem to have forgotten about him over the years and few directors work with him more than once anymore. David Goyer did, Blade 3 being his second time directing Snipes and he himself admits difficulties but the talent of Snipes won him over. I'm sure the likes of Scorsese and Spike Lee, who do films that would suit Snipes down to a tee, would hire him on the spot if it were merely a question of talent. For many years he hasn't has a significant role in a big production outside the action genre. His better roles are in smaller independent movies and TV movies suggesting that the big studios don't want to risk it with him. Truly this is a shame, I'm sure I'm not the only person who thinks Snipes has failed in his potential to be an Oscar winning actor.
Overall a disappointingly routine thriller that has a B-movie whiff surrounding it that Snipes should not have his name associated with. Tis' his own doing methinks! **
I'm a fan of Snipes, he's a great actor given the right roles and I truly believe he cursed his career all those years ago by saying yes to doing Passenger 57. Action films tend to waste him and since then the good roles have somewhat dried up compared to his golden period in his Spike Lee collaborations, in White Men Can't Jump, New Jack City and King Of New York. Initially he balanced his action movies by doing independent and TV movies as well, to have more challenging roles but looking at his next lot of movies, all action based, it seems he may have made his bed for good and is now content to lye in it. Not only is Unstoppable a bad action movie but it represents a real decline in financial backing and faith in Snipes ability to pull in an audience on his own. At a meagre $15million budget this is cheaper than the latest Van Damme and Seagal efforts and the film, although getting a limited release on Oct 30th, is basically straight to video and in quality it's not even one of the better. I have seen more enjoyable efforts this year form Seagal, Van Damme and Lundgren all who lack the undisputed talent that Snipes has. Directed by Television maestro David Carson whose only previous big screen gig was directing the fairly enjoyable Star Trek: Generations, although that was only enjoyable for seeing Picard and Kirk team up and for laughing every time Shatner opened his mouth to say a line. The film looks cheap, sounds cheap and suffers from the restraints heaped upon those DTV action gods. You sit and watch and feel this shouldn't happen to Snipes, who is going through the motions.
The plot has more holes than the holiest Swiss-cheese on earth and involves government conspiracies and comes across in some respects as a low grade Bourne movie (Snipes plays a guy hunted down by spooks while his mind is fried to s**t) it even has a supporting role in it for Adewale Agbaje who was in Bourne Identity. Also co-starring is Kim Coates. I won't go into the in's and out's of the plot because my head would start to hurt, but it involves a drug that cause the recipient to have strange visions that seem real and which allow for someone to control their mind by manipulating them in their visions, they will also die after a certain period of time. Snipes is mistaken for someone else and injected with this stuff in order for Coates and his fellow disbanded CIA men to retrieve important information about a deal for a whole big batch of the stuff. They don't realize they have the wrong man and it is left to Snipes girlfriend (Jacqueline Obradors) to work out what is going on and help her bloke.
So the plot is all over the place but this is an action movie, does it have enough well choreographed carnage to save it? Not really. The film in truth is boring. The action is flat and the direction, merely serviceable. There's some martial arts stuff but is all to brief. Those expecting Bladesque batterings of the baddies can think again. All in all this is a film that is a let down on so many levels. The main thing is that Snipes should have said no when someone put the script on his lap, I imagine it had grubby fingerprints and jam stains on it or something, or came in an X-files folder with scribblings all over the front.
I expect we have all heard the rumours that Snipes is a pain to work with, often turning up late, going missing and treating co-stars disrespectfully and how much of these rumours are true, we won't know for sure. You have to wonder though just whether his recent career track record shows that big name directors no longer want to work with him. He has worked with greats over the years who seem to have forgotten about him over the years and few directors work with him more than once anymore. David Goyer did, Blade 3 being his second time directing Snipes and he himself admits difficulties but the talent of Snipes won him over. I'm sure the likes of Scorsese and Spike Lee, who do films that would suit Snipes down to a tee, would hire him on the spot if it were merely a question of talent. For many years he hasn't has a significant role in a big production outside the action genre. His better roles are in smaller independent movies and TV movies suggesting that the big studios don't want to risk it with him. Truly this is a shame, I'm sure I'm not the only person who thinks Snipes has failed in his potential to be an Oscar winning actor.
Overall a disappointingly routine thriller that has a B-movie whiff surrounding it that Snipes should not have his name associated with. Tis' his own doing methinks! **
Once again Wesley lets us down
solanki176 August 2005
Before I start about this movie, I know many of you would like to direct your blame at Wesley, maybe not for just this movie but a lot of turkeys he's been making recently (Zig Zag, 7 seconds, The Marksman, Liberty stands still). Anyway he deserves blame in this film for not having more involvement on the script, which gets a bit silly. The movie is by no far means the worst movie I've seen; you just have to see another Snipes movie, "7 seconds" to do that! And at least unstoppable has strong performances from Snipes himself and the gorgeous Jacqueline Obradors. Its just the budget of this movie is clear to see, and the storyline is wafer thin with many loose ends not explained, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje plays an agent for the CIA named Junod, you may all remember him as Adebisi in the greatest TV show ever, OZ. Here he portrays a high ranking officer within the CIA with the worst American western style accent ever heard; there are even pauses during his dialogue for him to put the accent on. There are a few good fight scenes, like the scene in the Diner when Dean Cage (Snipes's character) beats down his attacker, and the chase to hunt him down is mildly enjoyable hence the generous maybe biased 5 out of ten I gave it. Stuart Wilson does a good job as the bad guy, but why he doesn't kill his bumbling henchmen especially Kim Coates character puts a big question mark on his characters ruthlessness. The story stumbles into the final scenes with so much predictability you feel like Deja vu. If you haven't enjoyed a decent performance from our dear friend Wesley since Jungle Fever or even Rising Sun, then don't expect it here, in fact who knows if we'll ever see another classic Wesley Snipes movie, now that he seems to make low budget straight to video fodder........watch only if it's on TV and nothing better is on
This movie won't STOP being awful
Batkid131 August 2007
Yeah, so that was a lame above criticism, but it doesn't matter because this movie hits the pits pretty hard. I could honestly care less if it was low-budget or not and/or original.
All I wanted was a decent Action flick and I was disappointed once again by Snipes's choices in film ( the last flick he was in was the DTV "The Marksman" ). He's never been that great throughout his career, but he has every once in awhile he's had a pretty, good leading/ supporting role and this was, unfortunately, one of his duds.
Anyway, this movie started getting campy, then got corny, then hit the mediocre level to where it was boring and just too stupid for words. I then turned it off and have USA network to thank for letting me watch it free on cable so I can save my money.
All I wanted was a decent Action flick and I was disappointed once again by Snipes's choices in film ( the last flick he was in was the DTV "The Marksman" ). He's never been that great throughout his career, but he has every once in awhile he's had a pretty, good leading/ supporting role and this was, unfortunately, one of his duds.
Anyway, this movie started getting campy, then got corny, then hit the mediocre level to where it was boring and just too stupid for words. I then turned it off and have USA network to thank for letting me watch it free on cable so I can save my money.
Former Special Ops agent Dean Cage (Wesley Snipes) is mistaking for another agent. Now he has to fight for his life.
twill_198914 May 2007
This had to be the worst Wesley Snipes flick of all time. Truly a waste of money. It hurts me to say this, because I'm a hardcore Wesley Snipes fan. I think the plot of this movie was trash. The park scene was the funniest; watch out for that scene other than that it was garbage. Wesley Snipes used a stunt man to perform a kick, since when does he use a stunt man to kick, I know Wesley isn't that old. True disappointment. Oh and by the way did I mention this movie was garbage? Wesley Snipes barely threw a punch in the whole movie, he mostly was on the run, using guns, but barely any hand to hand combat. I didn't see the The Detonator yet, but I'm kind of scared to after seeing this movie. I guess Wesley Snipes really needs the money. I hope Snipes can start making movies that actually hits the theaters, but for now, he's a straight to DVD actor. He is coming out with a movie this year, a horror/western called Gallowwalker. It's about a gunman being cursed, now he has to fight all of his enemies that died by his hands, only this time they're already dead. Sounds better than Unstoppable, I really hope it is. Wesley needs to step up his career; I'm fighting this fight with Wesley Snipes though, but I don't know how long this fight is going to last. I advise you to watch this movie only if you have nothing else better to watch on T.V.
Good Wesley Snipes Movie
monkey-man1 September 2005
I can not understand why this movie is rated so low on this web site the rating is 4.9 and this movie is not a 4.9 it is at least a 6 and a half out of 10.Wesley Snipes who is a kick ass action actor does a good job at acting and kicking ass in this movie.If u liked Wesley Snipes in this movie u should watch him in some of his other great action movies like Blade II, his first movie Wildcats,Passenger 57,Money train or White Men Can't Jump.
Over all do not believe this movies bad rating and all of the bad comments about this movie because this movie is way better then people say it is.And my rating is 6 and a half out of 10.
Over all do not believe this movies bad rating and all of the bad comments about this movie because this movie is way better then people say it is.And my rating is 6 and a half out of 10.
Possible the worst movie i have ever seen
sailortash1387 February 2005
Budget: est $15million. $14.9 million probably went to Wesley Snipes. The worst special effects, acting and plot all thrown together and put in a decent DVD cover. Guns being loaded with empty clips, dodgy effects, predictable scenes (we placed bets on what would happen in that scene. It was a good days betting). Wesley Snipes should be groaning at even having his name associated with this film. And the people who directed/wrote/starred and had basically anything to do with it should never be allowed near a movie set again!
I wouldn't recommend to any to pay decent money for this film, even on DVD. Go to the supermarket and spend that $5 on chocolate or chips, they will entertain you longer!
I wouldn't recommend to any to pay decent money for this film, even on DVD. Go to the supermarket and spend that $5 on chocolate or chips, they will entertain you longer!
If you're really, really bored...
FranklinOR19 September 2008
Warning: Spoilers
...then see this movie. It is typical, B-action movie. Overacted, with the wide range of teen-aged sarcasm to deer-in-the-headlights serious-face. Wesley spends most of the movie looking like he's drugged and regretting something - like signing up for this flick. He does get to do some karate kicks and yelling, though. For Obradors, this is a big step-up. Unfortunately, she is made for T.V. and certain magazines. Her role begs to be taken seriously and such is impossible. Premise device has promise: hallucinations on command. Certainly gave the editor something to do. I pity those who shelled out money for this. They must have been ticked-off.
Much better than average
holysimon23 October 2005
Warning: Spoilers
Much better than average.
Sorry to bring you the news but a black man engaged to a white chick is a no-no in American cinema. Westly Snipes is a daring man and probably a fool.
Not a rat though.
If the whole production suffers a bit from a lack of funds, it is rich with new ideas and developments. Ain't that the real meaning of a "B" movie? I'll choose Snipes flick and the white chick any time over the overrated Bourne series. At least it's got soul. At least it's got balls.
And it's trying to get somewhere.
Sorry to bring you the news but a black man engaged to a white chick is a no-no in American cinema. Westly Snipes is a daring man and probably a fool.
Not a rat though.
If the whole production suffers a bit from a lack of funds, it is rich with new ideas and developments. Ain't that the real meaning of a "B" movie? I'll choose Snipes flick and the white chick any time over the overrated Bourne series. At least it's got soul. At least it's got balls.
And it's trying to get somewhere.
bad action film
dcldan1 July 2006
Wesley Snipes play the part of an ex-soldier that is going to marry his girlfriend, but, in a bar, he is confused with another person and a group of traitors to CIA inject him a powerful drug that mixes reality and memory. He and his girlfriend have to fight in order to find an antidote and to crush the organization that has attacked Wesley. A typical bad action film, with all the clichés that can be found in this kind of films. Directed poorly, with scenes not very well-done and a lot of unbelievable moments of mastery in aiming. Neither the actors nor the plot are very good so the film is quite bad. On the other hand it has any moment of breathe and the action does not bore the spectator, (unexpected) which is a (little) good point. Ideal for TVfilm (it was originally thought as one), for seeing and forgot, but a little enjoyable if you like action films
I liked it.....was curious why Wesley didn't release this one
lotus_chief22 January 2005
Seeing how awful Blade Trinity was, renting Unstoppable and seeing how much I liked it, the first question I asked was why he didn't release this instead. It's a B-rated movie, so I knew what to expect. Yes the CG jet fighter planes were obviously so, and some of the explosions featured fake fire; but as far as the story goes I was entertained. Again, I wasn't expecting Blade here; it's your basic action movie. When I rented this I thought it was gonna be really bad, but for the really low budget and the material presented I was pleasantly surprised.
**1/2 out of **** stars.
**1/2 out of **** stars.
Passable Action Movie, With a Wasted Premise
monkeysgalore23 February 2020
2004-2005 was around the time Wesley Snipes' career started to tank. He had many good action films under his belt, but for some reason, instead of branching out and trying new things, he opted to go the direct-to-video route, which history tells us is the place where the careers of once popular action stars go to die. Several stars have fallen prey to the deadly claws of the direct-to-video market, such as Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, and the reigning king of awful DTV action films, Steven Seagal. Snipes also went this route, and we are still feeling the fallout of that cataclysmic career choice. But amid all the DTV crap, there's actually a decent film (relative to the DTV market), called "Unstoppable" (aka "Nine Lives").
This movie, one of Snipes' first DTV efforts, was bashed by fans for its slow pacing, noticeably low budget and production value, and lack of action. I recently gave it a watch while recovering from a head cold, and actually enjoyed it.
Ok sure, it's a little slower than your usual action flick. It takes its time, not bludgeoning the viewer over the head with action scenes. Sure it may look and sound action-packed, and there is action. I definitely agree with the observations made by the haters, but it all really comes down to how forgiving you are, or the mood you're in.
The film does ask the viewer to care about the characters and take an interest in the story. It does try to make the story interesting and not just inundate the viewer with action, which is a risky move that often doesn't work. It actually worked for me here, unlike Snipes' later vehicle, The Contractor (2007). This film's premise is interesting, and Snipes is charismatic, and that was enough for me to forgive it.
Now, this is not "action-packed" per se, and with a premise that suggests lots of loud action, this film definitely teases more than it delivers. The trailer does make it look very action-packed, though in fairness all the scenes in the trailer are in the movie. There are four action scenes here. The diner scene, the asylum escape, the truck chase, and the final battle. These scenes were well-directed, and entertaining, and while Snipes doesn't do a ton of fighting (he does a bit), he was there enough to keep me interested. Some of the action did border on ridiculousness, such as the truck scene, and the final battle in which a dude is firing a minigun out of a helicopter, and Snipes shoots the copter like twice and it explodes for no reason. I let these things go. It is direct-to-video, after all.
They definitely could've done more with the premise. The film takes place over the course of one night, and Snipes' character hallucinates a lot, with scenes switching between reality and his hallucinations. More could've been done with that, and there definitely could've been some more action.
Overall, it's a slower, more plodding action thriller, with just barely enough action to satisfy, but it has heart, and you could do a lot worse when it comes to action films.
This movie, one of Snipes' first DTV efforts, was bashed by fans for its slow pacing, noticeably low budget and production value, and lack of action. I recently gave it a watch while recovering from a head cold, and actually enjoyed it.
Ok sure, it's a little slower than your usual action flick. It takes its time, not bludgeoning the viewer over the head with action scenes. Sure it may look and sound action-packed, and there is action. I definitely agree with the observations made by the haters, but it all really comes down to how forgiving you are, or the mood you're in.
The film does ask the viewer to care about the characters and take an interest in the story. It does try to make the story interesting and not just inundate the viewer with action, which is a risky move that often doesn't work. It actually worked for me here, unlike Snipes' later vehicle, The Contractor (2007). This film's premise is interesting, and Snipes is charismatic, and that was enough for me to forgive it.
Now, this is not "action-packed" per se, and with a premise that suggests lots of loud action, this film definitely teases more than it delivers. The trailer does make it look very action-packed, though in fairness all the scenes in the trailer are in the movie. There are four action scenes here. The diner scene, the asylum escape, the truck chase, and the final battle. These scenes were well-directed, and entertaining, and while Snipes doesn't do a ton of fighting (he does a bit), he was there enough to keep me interested. Some of the action did border on ridiculousness, such as the truck scene, and the final battle in which a dude is firing a minigun out of a helicopter, and Snipes shoots the copter like twice and it explodes for no reason. I let these things go. It is direct-to-video, after all.
They definitely could've done more with the premise. The film takes place over the course of one night, and Snipes' character hallucinates a lot, with scenes switching between reality and his hallucinations. More could've been done with that, and there definitely could've been some more action.
Overall, it's a slower, more plodding action thriller, with just barely enough action to satisfy, but it has heart, and you could do a lot worse when it comes to action films.
stinking pile of garbage
drbusch-13 January 2005
This is the worst movie I have seen in recent memory. Apparently "Unstoppable" was written by a couple dozen drunken monkeys in different parts of the world with no connection at all to one another. I believe the name unstoppable is a description of the migraine one gets after watching this mind numbing stinking pile of trash. Wes- what were you thinking? Wesley Snipes is a far more accomplished actor than to be in this. This must have been a favor to someone or maybe he lost a bet. There was no measurable good quality to the screenplay. One could make out the pauses in the middle of sentences as the cue cards were switched. The special effects were pathetic at best. The acting, even by Snipes, was horrible. There were obvious sections where the film maker wanted to pad the film. I am actually shocked I didn't see a boom in any of the shots. Instead of renting this movie buy some rusty nails and pound them into your noggin. Trust me, it would be much less painful.
I just realized what this movie reminded me of. This would have been the perfect role for Gary Busey!!
I just realized what this movie reminded me of. This would have been the perfect role for Gary Busey!!
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