Unstoppable is the story of Will (Chris Pine), a man whose marriage is unraveling quickly and who just joined the railroad, and of Frank (Denzel Washington) whose wife recently passed away and who has one foot shoved out the railroad door. The two are paired together while Will is trained as a conductor by Frank. During their first day together a runaway train carrying toxic chemicals threatens to derail in a heavily populated Pennsylvania town. The hero spirit takes over Will and Frank and they decide to try to stop that train no matter what their fate may be.

I love trains. I love action movies. This movie had me unexpectedly on the edge of my seat for almost the entire time. I had such low expectations of this movie going in, but Rosario Dawson‘s performance as yardmaster Connie Hooper adds to an incredibly dynamic tension that keeps a movie about a train travelling all by itself into a breathtaking thrill ride.

Unstoppable is loosely based on the Crazy Eights runaway train incident in Ohio on May 15, 2001, but it’s best to consider this a straight-up work of fiction so you don’t spoil the ending for yourself.

Buttery’s Rating:

College friends Parker (Emma Bell), Joe (Shawn Ashmore), and Dan (Kevin Zegers) are at the ski slope for a day of skiing and snowboarding, but somehow neglected to bring enough money to purchase their ski lift tickets. Funny, that. At the suggestion of her boyfriend Dan, Parker uses her feminine wiles and a pile of cash to convince the ski lift operator Jason (Ed Ackerman) to let them go on one run past clsing time for less then full price.

The ski resort closes early due to impending bad weather but Parker, Joe, and Dan bribe Jason to let them go up one last time. While they’re on the lift Rifkin (Adam Johnson) takes over the ski lift but a misunderstanding causes him to stop the lift before they reach the top of the mountain. For some reason the three take an unreasonably long time to realize they’ve been abandoned on the lift and begin to tell each other scary stories while beginning to freeze from the inclement weather. When the resort’s lights are turned off they finally start to realize they have been forgotten. And then they realize the resort is closed for 4 whole days before the next weekend opening when someone comes around to rescue their frozen corpses.

And then the storm that closed the resort early hits full force, fully setting in the trio’s panic. They realize they are quickly experiencing frostbite so Dan jumps down from the lift and breaks both his legs so badly that the bone is sticking out of both legs (ewwwwwwww!) and he is beginning to bleed to death.

Joe decides to try to go up to the ski lift cable so he can get to a pole that has a ladder downward. While Joe begins his an attempt a wolf tries to attack the incapacitated Dan but Parker is able to scare it away with her snowboard. As we all know, however, wolves always travel in packs. If these friends make it down the hill alive they won’t be well off on the other end.

This movie is a mixture of gross, hokey, and suspenseful. A perfect combination for this indie thriller. Unexciting character development building up to the gross-out hurts the film.

My one leftover question: Why were there wolves anywhere near the slopes of a functioning ski resort? The public danger would close any common sense park down right away. But maybe this isn’t a common sense sort of establishment…

Buttery’s Rating:

Recommendation

I honestly don’t think food is a good idea while watching the often gross scenes shown.

For a beverage you may want to consider a little Milk of Magnesia to settle your tummy.

Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) lives in the rumored bank robbing capital of the United States, the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown. By day he works a legitimate job in the sand and gravel business, and by vacation day he robs bank trucks and bank branches with his buddies Jim (Jeremy Renner), Gloansy (Slaine), and Dez (Owen Burke). During a bank branch robbery the masked crew makes bank manager Claire (Rebecca Hall) open the cash vault then takes her hostage, keeps her license as a threat of “we know where you live,” then sets her loose blndfolded and barefoot on the beach.

Claire is left with post traumatic stress disorder from the ordeal, and when questioned by the FBI cannot tell them why she was released without harm. Jim doesn’t like the loose end that Doug made him leave alive, so Doug promises to check in with Claire to make sure she has no idea who robbed the bank. He follows her to a laundromat where she happens to ask him for change for the dryer. When he says he has none she breaks down crying, confessing to him that she is an emotional wreck because of a bank robbery and her forced kidnapping. A dangerous one-sided Helsinki Syndrome relationship develops between the two, where Claire is left unknowing of Doug‘s involvement in her traumatic event.

Jim finds out about the relationship and presses the issue that Claire is a messy loose end to their bank job and should be “taken care of” but Doug refuses and makes plans to leave town with Claire to avoid the fall-out from the FBI investigation led by Special Agent Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm) that is zeroing in on the crew.

Story lines about Doug’s father Stephen (Chris Cooper) being in jail for life, the mystery of Doug‘s missing mother, the arrangement of the bank jobs by Irish mob boss “The Florist” (Pete Postlethwaite), and Jim‘s drug addicted prostitute sister Krista (Blake Lively) feeling unrequited love for Doug all help the movie stay engaging when the love story between Doug and Claire and the crazy chase scenes and shootouts of the bank heists aren’t on the screen.

The character development is three dimensional, the story lines intertwine seemlessly, and the chase scenes in the tight streets of Charlestown are amazing. The violent gun battle scenes are exciting despite their predictable conclusions. Great job, Mr. Affleck.

Buttery’s Rating:

Recommendation

What more perfect snack is there to nosh on while watching a film about Boston than Ferrara Pan Boston Baked Beans candy?

A cup of hot Boyer’s Irish Cream Coffee will get you into character.

Ringing in the new year with a movie based upon the apocalypse? Why not! My New Year’s resolution: Don’t piss anybody off so they want to hang me from hooks and ritualistically kill me!

Aidan Breslin (Dennis Quaid) is a detective with a background in forensic odontology who is recently widowed. Aidan dives further into his caseload to avoid the pain of his loss and his teenage son Alex (Lou Taylor Pucci) is left to care for the youngest son Sean (Liam James).

Breslin is called into a disturbing serial killer case where victims are ritualistically hung from hooks by the self named Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Breslin catches the first of the four, an adopted girl named Kristin (Ziyi Zhang) who quickly goes from innocent victim of tragedy to psychotic main suspect. The details of The Four Horsemen‘s murderous plot become clear and a dangerous race to find the rest of the Horsemen before the bodies pile up begins. The true horror for Aidan is actualized when he learns that he was specifically chosen to work this case… and why.

This movie is slow paced in between its scenes of true gore. The back story of the dad who is never around for his kids is nothing new, but it ties into this story in a more creative way than usual. Although the ending becomes predictable if you’re watching closely, it still is a psychological thrill to get there. The very end of the film, however, deducts an entire bucket for weak delivery in tying up loose ends.

Worth a watch with a Twitter buddy to discuss the scenes as they unfold, which is exactly how I watched it.

Buttery’s Rating:

Recommendation

I had a craving for fries during this movie so I recommend Smart Fries which are healthier for you than regular fries and help you guess the ending just like I did.

Let’s go for broke and drink some Tru Blood during this movie.

The dysfunctional Harrington family is taking the back roads to Grandma’s house for dinner on Christmas Eve when they encounter an injured Lady in White (Amber Smith) walking along the road clutching her baby. Psychologist daughter Marion (Alexandra Holden) hops out of the car so the strange woman can ride with the rest of the family to get help. The Harringtons stop at a cabin on the side of the road to see if anyone is inside, but it is vacant. Son Richard (Mick Cain) goes off into the woods to have some quality time with a picture of a centerfold model while Marion‘s boyfriend Brad (Billy Asher) stays in the car and tries to make small talk the woman in white and learns that her baby is dead. Then suddenly Brad has been abducted in a black car and the family chases after Brad to rescue him. Unfortunately the rescue turns futile when father Frank (Ray Wise) and mother Laura (Lin Shaye) find Brad chopped up into pieces in the middle of the road.

Richard notices that there have been no other cars on the road for miles while they try to find a place to stop for help and that all their clocks stopped at 7:30pm, suggesting to everyone that aliens are responsible. Everyone dismisses this, but Marion quickly enters a catatonic state over the loss of her boyfriend. As the family continues to drive in the dark with no homes or businesses in sight they begin to escalate their anger with each other until a tire blow-out stops the car in its track. Marion then reveals that she is pregnant with Brad‘s baby… oopsie!

Frank and Richard have a father-son moment of trying to change the tire together and it ends in a Ralphie swear fest à la A Christmas Story. While Frank finishes the tire change Richard wanders back off into the woods to smoke pot and contemplate the family’s future. The Lady in White reappears and begins to make out with Richard. The woman bites Richard‘s lower lip off then we cut scene to Richard in the back of the black hearse about to meet the same fate as Brad. They run over a very crispy burned alive Richard in the road, remote the presents for Grandma’s house from the car minus a shotgun that was for Uncle Michael, then plop dead Richard into the trunk.

Laura goes instantly insane over the loss of her son and begins babbling nonsensically while Frank talks of an urban legend he’d heard as a kid of The Lady in White. The family stops the car when Laura gets sick from eating too much food, then Laura grabs the shotgun from the car and tries to shoot Frank. Marion tries to stop Laura from shooting her husband but it does not work, and Laura shoots Frank in the leg. Marion is able to bandage Frank up and he continues driving the family along the deserted road.

Laura‘s insanity is not lessening and she jumps from the car while it’s moving so that she can meet up with dead people only she can see on the side of the road. When Frank and Marion stop the car to find Laura they see the black hearse again and try their best to stop it. Laura wanders out of the woods and we see her brain exposed out of the back of her head. You may be wondering if she dies… that’d be a yup.

So, with only Frank and Marion left, will they make it to safety? Or will the black hearse come for them too?

Camp, camp, camp!!! Hilariously ridiculous until the end when you realize this was a complex blending of reality, dream world, afterlife, and the grim reaper’s role in it all.

Buttery’s Rating:

Recommendation

Looks like Mom Laura was snacking on Lay’s Potato Chips in the car. Sounds good to us!

Mom kept drinking coffee so how about a thermos filled with Jamaican Me Crazy Flavored Coffee.

The Covenant is an intriguing tale of the descendants of a 17th Century coven of witches. It revolves around Pogue Parry (Taylor Kitsch), Tyler Simms (Chace Crawford), and Reid Garwin (Toby Hemingway) who are lead by Caleb Danvers (Steven Strait) and are collectively known as the Sons of Ipswich, representing four of the five founding families of the town. The fifth family was rumored to have been driven off for violating a covenant of silence the coven made to avoid persecution during the witch hunts of the time. Attending the elite and upper class Spencer Academy, the boys seem to be the popular clique… allowing others to look, but not see who they truly are as magic wielding warlocks.

With their powers comes not only the cliche’d great responsibility, but the absolute lure of addiction. However, their abilities are not for free use. The more their magic is used, the more addicting it becomes, and the quicker their bodies will age and eventually fail them. This underlying morality lesson of the dangers of drugs is something that is rarely seen told in such a compelling fashion.

A newcomer to the school, Chase Collins (Sebastian Stan), challenges their social dominance. The arrogance of the group is quickly lost when it is discovered that Chase isn’t like any of the other kids… but he is much more like the members of the coven. The fifth family has returned from their exile, and the battle for power begins in earnest.

While the special effects in the action scenes can be considered somewhat mediocre by today’s standards, there are a few scenes that are completely mind blowing. Unfortunately, chances are that you have already seen them in the trailer. The acting was solid, especially for what amounts to a cast of no names. The premise of the story is by far its strongest part. While I think they did a good job in getting the generalities out there… it would have been nice to have seen some more detail for no other reason than to fill the open gap as to why exactly Chase feels so slighted by those he has never met before.

Special Features

Audio commentary and a featurette are the big draws here. Well… who am I kidding… obviously no one saved any magic for the DVD because those are the ONLY draws. Watch the movie, and if you enjoy it that much then maybe you won’t have invested in a nice shiny coaster for the coffee table after all.

Popcorn’s Rating:

Recommendations:

A movie about addictive magic deserves an addictive magic like snack… Magic Mentos Mints are addictively tasty and magically make your bad breath disappear! Can you ask for anything more?