Director Tony Scott’s remake of the 1974 classic The Taking of Pelham 123 unites for the first time acting heavyweights Denzel Washington and John Travolta. Although not the taut thriller of the original Scott’s updated version still provides solid entertainment. Travolta and company including the always brilliant Luiz Guzman hijack a subway train and demand the tidy sum of $10,000,000. Travolta insists on liaising only with Washington. Things seem straight forward at first but under the surface all is not what it seems for both Travolta and Washington.
Scott relies on action and tense dialogue scenes with his now usual ingredients of fast passed camera work, kinetic editing and lateral use of colours. As with the rest of his oeuvre he tells a story that is never boring. The film heads for the jugular and doesn’t extend its welcome. Please take note Mr. Michael Bay.
Tony Scott does not rely just on car chases and shoot outs in order to please his audience. The parley between Travolta and Washington are as entertaining as the action scenes. Travolta gives a riveting performance, similar to his bad guy character in Face/Off. He is cynical, on the edge and prepared to kill. A well balanced hubris of menace juxtaposed with humour. Washington gives a more subdued performance – His character is an everyman, but never dull and boring. Paul Gandolfini is effective in the role of Mayer of New York.
This film is very tongue in cheek about the rules of action movies. During the high speed police journey through New York traffic to deliver the ransom money the Mayer asks “why didn’t they use a helicopter”, to the accepting sighs of the audience.
On the negative side the great John Torturro does very little (another payday role similar but better than his work in Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. Although the film seems to want to portray New York as a character this is not satisfyingly articulated. Towards the end of the film the city is very cumbersomely referred to when as they look at the cityscape Turtorro says to Washington, “when you look at that you see why it’s worth dying for”. This seemed out of sync with the rest of the film and perhaps would have had more of an impact had the characters of the hostages been more developed to reveal the spirit of the city.
The denouement is predictable and pretty much run of the mill in terms of what happens but the way it is told makes doesn’t spoil the fun of this film. It’s no masterpiece but still good pleasurable viewing and worth the price of admission. Although it may have garnered greater box office if it had been released it at the end of summer/beginning of autumn and not in the midst of such box office behemoths as Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, Terminator Salvation, Harry Potter, sleeper hit comedies et al.
