The Taking of Pelham 123

2 stars

A predictable and preposterous thriller that mostly relies on Travolta to make it work.

Stars: John Travolta, Denzel Washington, James Gandolfini
Rating: 14A

What’s the story?
What starts off as a normal day for port authority officer Walter Garber (Washington) is soon turned around when an escaped convict (Travolta) takes a New York metro-train hostage. The convict known only as “Ryder” demands a ransom of one million dollars per hostage (which equals to $17 million), delivered to him and his crew of criminals in one hour, or he’ll start executing people. Now it’s up to Garber to take action and be the hero when no one else (not even cops) can.

Why see it?
Director Tony Scott’s update of this 1974 film boosts up a couple of decent action scenes and Travolta gives his best villainous performance since Face Off. The cast, including James Gandofini (The Sopranos) as a controversial mayor and John Tuttoro (Mr. Deeds) as a hostage negotiator, finely tune their roles. The performances save the movie from being a bigger mistake than it already is.

Problems?
This film has what could have been the makings of a great movie, but, unfortunately, there are too many coincidences and poor editing (which means jerky action sequences). The once-great Denzel gives a sadly wooden performance, which I was disappointed by – maybe it’s time for him to start picking new roles. As a director, Tony Scott has done movies that I quite enjoy, but here I think he’s just trying to become the next Michael Bay – he can do better than trying to copy someone else.

All in All:
This remake just doesn’t translate well from the original and I expected a lot more from Tony Scott.