Get ready for a fast and exciting ride. The new film “Unstoppable” grabs you and puts you on the edge of your seat until the very end. Denzel Washington gives an outstanding award-worthy performance, a good way to follow up his recent Tony Award as lead actor in a play, in “Fences.” Denzel is no stranger to awards, having won two Oscars: for supporting actor in “Glory” (1989) and for best actor in “Training Day” (2001). Despite being one of the busiest actors around, he has managed to raise four children with his wife of 27 years, Pauletta. His 26-year-old son, John David, played football for the St. Louis Rams, daughter Kalia (23) is attending Yale, and as for his 20-year-old twins, Olivia and Malcolm (named after Malcolm X), we do know that Malcolm is studying at the University of Pennsylvania.
Also giving a first-rate performance is Chris Pine, whom we last saw as Captain James T. Kirk in the “Star Trek” movie. He really proves he is an accomplished actor. Not resting on his laurels, he appeared in a play, “Farragut North,” with “Law & Order” star Chris Noth at The Geffin Playhouse in L.A, and had very good reviews. His big break came on “E.R.” and then “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement” with Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews. Acting is obviously in his blood — his father, Robert Pine, starred on the classic ’70s series “CHiPs” and had a long run on the CBS soap “The Bold and The Beautiful.” Chris is currently filming “This Means War” opposite Reese Witherspoon and Tom Hardy.
Rounding out the cast of “Unstoppable” is Rosario Dawson, who starred in such films as “Men In Black II” and “Rent.” Her performance is the perfect blend to match Denzel and Chris Pine, as an unmanned runaway train, the length of a skyscraper and loaded with toxic chemicals and diesel fuel, threatens to wipe out a Pennsylvania town.
That whiz kid Neil Patrick Harris was great hosting The Emmy Awards and the Tony Awards and is going strong with “How I Met Your Mother,” both in first run and syndication. Harris is proving he can do anything. He is set to direct an independent film, “Aaron and Sarah,” starring Emma Roberts (daughter of actor Eric Roberts and niece of Julia Roberts) and Josh Hutcherson of “The Kids Are All Right” and the upcoming remake of “Red Dawn.” Neil Patrick Harris also will act in the films “Beastly,” due out in March, and “The Smurfs,” due in August.
Johnny Depp, currently making “Pirates of the Caribbean 4” with Rob Marshall directing (he was Oscar nominated for “Chicago”), is turning producer. Depp and Marshall will team up again to remake “The Thin Man” detective movies (there were five of them), about Nick and Nora Charles and their dog Asta, played by William Powell and Myrna Loy (and Asta as himself). There also was a TV series from 1957-’59 with Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk. With all the remakes Depp does, can “Topper,” which starred Cary Grant, be far behind?
© 2010 King Features Synd., Inc.