Film: Unstoppable (2010)

Blu-Ray


Review: Tony Scott is the perfect director for this type of movie. It is a simple thriller about a runaway freight train that takes advantage of his skills in filming propulsive action as it ramps up the tension all the way to the end. The film cuts back and forth between the railway control center struggling to deal with the issue and two employees on another freight train heading toward it on the mainline.

Quotes:
"How the hell did this happen?"
"It just got away from me."
"It got away from you? It's a train, Dewey, not a chipmunk!"

"So, red means..."
"777 blew through a signal. Everything in red means trouble on the mainline."
"That's a lot of red!"

"I only got one rule. One rule only: you're gonna do something, you do it right. You don't know how to do it, you ask me, all right? Likewise, if you need anything from me, you'd better speak up. 'Cause, uh, you're the conductor. Once we get our freight, it's your train. I'm just the guy driving it."

"Tell Galvin we got two guys out on the mainline about to play chicken with our train."

"Married?"
"Yeah. Well, sort of. It's a long story."
"We got a long day."
"How about you, you married?"
"Short story. Once."

"There's a good chance the derailer won't work."
"It's called a derailer, for Christ's sake! That's what they do!"
"A train that size going that fast, it will vaporize anything that gets in its way."

"Maybe you didn't hear what I just said, Colson. I will fire you!"
"Well, that's too bad. I was just starting to like this job."

"Hey, don't get sentimental on me. Makes me think I'm gonna die."

4 1/2 out of 5 Stars

Film: The Matador (2005)

Blu-Ray


Review: This is not an action film like the title and poster suggest, but a talky dramatic comedy about an assassin suffering from a mid-life crisis. Without any friends from his solitary lifestyle on the road, he latches onto a equally-troubled businessman staying in his hotel in Mexico City. While Pierce Brosnan was a decent James Bond, it is his anti-hero roles like in this film and in "The Tailor of Panama" where he really shines.

Quotes:
"I'm as serious as an erection problem."

"Margaritas always taste better in Mexico.
"They certainly do."
"Margaritas and cock... Sorry about the cock thing, it's kind of a conversation stopper."

"A Vietnamese girl I once knew had her legs so locked together I couldn't get a whiff of her spring roll. Two drinks, half a quaalude later, I was at an all you can eat buffet. Every lock can be broken. It's just a matter of will and whether it's worth it."

"I need a break. There's no retirement home for assassins is there? Archery at four. Riflery at five."
"Goddamn it, Julian, you leave the game, even for a while, I don't know if they'll gonna let you back in. And then what the hell are you gonna do? Waste your days picking up illiterate teenagers for suck-and-fuck sessions behind the Old Navy store?"
"Sounds delightful to me."

"An assassin without confidence is a horrible thing to behold. It's like a relief pitcher who fumbles the ball."
"Please tell me you know you mixed two sports in a metaphor."
"Huh? Yeah, I can't do that."

"Just consider me the best cocktail party story you ever met."

4 out of 5 Stars

Film: Dark City (1998)

Blu-Ray


Review: An atmospheric sci-fi thriller that lives up to the film's title, Dark City. A man wakes up in a hotel room with a dead girl and no memory before he escapes to wander the city while avoiding the police and a group of pale men with strange powers. As he struggles with his own confused identity, he discovers more about a city that seemingly has no exit and shape-shifts at the stroke of midnight.

Quotes:
"Excuse me. How do I get to the end of the line?"
"You want the Express."
"Hey, how come that train didn't stop?"
"That's the Express."

"When was the last time you remember doing something during the day?"
"What do you mean?"
"I just mean during the day. Daylight. When was the last time you remember seeing it? And I'm not talking about some distant, half-forgotten childhood memory, I mean like yesterday. Last week. Can you come up with a single memory? You can't, can you? You know something, I don't think the sun even... exists... in this place. 'Cause I've been up for hours, and hours, and hours, and the night never ends here."

"There is no ocean, John. There is nothing beyond the city. The only place home exists... is in your head."

"I know this is gonna sound crazy, but what if we never knew each other before now... and everything you remember, and everything that I'm supposed to remember, never really happened, someone just wants us to think it did?"
"But how can that be true? I so vividly remember meeting you. I remember falling in love with you. I remember losing you."

4 out of 5 Stars