2009 Review #55: The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

Rated R
(violence and pervasive language)
1 hour 46 minutes

Storyline:
Armed men hijack a New York City subway train, holding the passengers hostage in return for a ransom, and turning an ordinary day's work for dispatcher Walter Garber into a face-off with the mastermind behind the crime. This is a remake of a 1974 film of the same name starring Walter Matthau.

Starring:
Denzel Washington
John Travolta
John Turturro
James Gandolfini

Critics Grade:
D-

My Grade:
B-

So this film is apparently a loose remake of a 1974 thriller of the same name. I've never seen said film, so I cannot compare the two. Critics say the original is much better, and I'm sure they are probably right. By all standards, this should have been a movie I was destined to not like in the least. It's hard these days to take Oscar nominee John Travolta (Pulp Fiction, Face/Off) seriously. But on the other hand Oscar winner Denzel Washington (Training Day, Deja Vu) is usually a reliable performer. But then back on the flip side you have a film directed by Tony Scott, whose films such as Man on Fire, Deja Vu, The Fan, etc have been crapped on critically for being "to much" or "seriously bad over the top action"(even though I typically enjoy them). Then you have the tired storyline of a crazy hostage take who wants a tremendous sum of cold hard cash (10 million dollars in this case) and only wants to deal with a person who has no experience in hostage negotiation. This formula should add up to a pretty ridiculous, over the top and fairly stupid action thriller right?

Well not for me it didn't. I was actually surprised, because I enjoyed this film overall. It is not a perfect movie. It is not in the top ten or twenty action films ever made. It has it's flaws, of course. Yes some of the action does get a little "Tony Scott" on us. But it never escalated to being "to much to handle". There were also numerous moments where the movie would do this weird slow motion thing with the train or the shots of the city that became distracting after a while. There was this elongated action sequence of the money being transferred by the NYPD that became so cliched and annoying. You would have to think they would have had a better method of getting this money over with a deadline of only an HOUR! Instead the whiz through the streets getting in numerous fender benders without a care in the world. I don't know...that part was a little silly to me. Also the constant use of John Travolta's character saying "Mother F**ker" with this weird inflection...bothered me. Ha, whatever though.
Overall those are minor delays, and ones that were to be expected in a film like this. But I thought the movie played out pretty well. There was no ridiculous motive for the villain, no sinister and overly intelligent and well thought out evil plan. The bad guy was smart, but also didn't think things through. He screws up a few times. Almost "humanizes" the guy in a strange way. I have to say too, Travolta was actually pretty darn good in this movie. He had every opportunity to just go nuts with this performance and fall into the crazy hostage taker cliched role but I don't think he did. He was actually pretty cool. I mean he wasn't to far off from said cliche, but he was different enough for me to like. Also good was Denzel. Duh. The guy is almost always good in anything he does. He plays his character so calm and collected but also shows some bad ass tendencies. You really like his character even though he isn't the best person in the world. He was funny at times, and just really good. Great job from both leads.

Tony Scott's direction was pretty normal for him again here. Yes there were some insane over the top moments, but this film was more toned down for him I thought. I think he handled the film well. You don't have this awesome screenplay, so he did what he could for the film and relied on strong performances from the two leads to carry the movie along the way. I also liked how he tried to humanize a couple of the hostages. Most of the time, we see very little of the victims, only glances. For the most part, it's the same here, but they showcase a couple hostages enough for us to know they do exist in the movie and that we are supposed to care for their safety. So pretty good job there.

You are probably thrown off by the fact that I liked this movie, but whatever I'm in a good mood today! This is just a fun, entertaining flick that passes the time really well. I would totally suggest it to people who are into a movie like this. It's not as terrible as you may thing or as the critics are letting you on. It's not the coolest action movie of the year, duh! But it still holds it's own I think. Good flick! So sue me!