CULCHA

Trailer Hitch: Blood on the tracks …

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Ever get that feeling that it's all out of our control? Two new films opening Friday seem ready to capitalize on that sinking feeling common to everyday life. Unstoppable, the latest from Tony Scott, finds two train workers — a grizzled engineer (Denzel Washington) and a game rookie conductor (Chris Pine) trying to stop a runaway freight train loaded with hazardous chemicals and diesel fuel. It's the second train movie for Scott and Washington; both were aboard for the subway crime thriller The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. For Pine (Captain Kirk in Star Trek), this conveyance moves a little slower than the starship Enterprise. But with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 90%, this one may have legs. Or wheels.

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… and death from above

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Skyline, the new sci-fi feature from the Brothers Strause, finds the city of Los Angeles awakening to a new horror: mysterious blue lights descending all over the city, lights dispatched by an army of extraterrestrials that lure people like moths to a flame. And they've got company: What's first thought to be a local extinction-level event is happening all over the world. Six people work to keep  themselves from seeing the light. Eric Balfour, Scottie Thompson and Donald Faison (Turk in Scrubs) star in this alien invasion thriller. Rotten Tomatoes is not optimistic: 20% (one critic called it "A minor step above a Sy-Fy Original sauteed with the theatrics of a "Melrose Place"-type nighttime soap").

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