If I was a movie reviewer, which I am not, I might claim that the runaway train action moview by the blandest director in the universe, Tony Scott, is all action no movie. To claim there isn’t anything remotely exciting, provactive, human or unreal, on this barrelling powerhouse of a movie is to state the self-evident. It is like watching somebody else ride a roller coaster.
To state that you know how baby Kirk Chris Pine and the Sidney Poiter of the 90s Denzel Washington, are gonna end (they will stop the train: this isn’t a spoiler, there isn’t an ounce of suspence) is business as usual. to say you know everything else as well, is to pinpoint why something so visceral is so boring.
One saving grace? We didn’t have to listen to a Bon Jovi type rock band piounding out naff rock and roll to provide the thrills Scott can’t.
So let me tie it to the excellent 1990s band Soul Asylum. Two hit wonders? Sure. But at least Dave Pirner gotta nail Wimona Ryder back when she was very very cool. And both their hits, “Runaway Train” and “Black Gold” are a classicists sense of rock history gussied up as grunge.
Or many not gussied up. Like metal band the Stranglers being lumped with punk in the 70s, it was done for reasons of fashion. Jean Jaques was all zips and safty pins, Dave all ripped tee and dirty hair. But Soul Asylum were not running the loud/soft axis, and, if you were to place em with any contemporary, it would not be Soundgarden, it would be Gin Blossoms. 1992’s Grave Dancers Union, their one hit album, remains a well crafted bunch of songs. “Black Oil” a self-portait of quiet beauty and power. “Mother, do you know where your kids are tonight?” Me, I was watching a very good Soul Asylum gig at Tramps.
Two hits were enough to keep Soul Asylum a functioning rock band, recording albums to a small but loyal audience and nostalgists waiting for the hits.
Unstoppable was couldn’t get started, Soul Asylum haven’t stopped.