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List Price: $28.96 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 280
Released: November 3, 2009 |
| Our Price: $12.49 |
| Used Price: $6.95 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) is a New York City subway dispatcher whose ordinary day is thrown into chaos by an audacious crime: the hijacking of a subway train. Ryder (John Travolta), the criminal mastermind behind the hijacking and leader of a highly-armed gang of four, threatens to execute the train's passengers unless a large ransom is paid within one hour. As the tension mounts beneath his feet, Garber employs his vast knowledge of the subway system in a battle to outwit Ryder and save the hostages. But there's one riddle Garber can't solve: even if the thieves get the money, how can they possibly escape?
Description of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3:
John Godey's 1973 novel The Taking of Pelham One Two Three boasts a suspense situation so surefire that even the directorial bad habits of Tony Scott can't ruin this latest movie version. Four armed men seize a New York City subway train, isolate one car, and threaten to start killing passengers if a ransom isn't paid within the hour. The ransom was a million dollars in the book and also in Joseph Sargent's solid 1974 movie, in which Robert Shaw played the mercenary leading the hostage takers and Walter Matthau was the growling transit cop trying to outsmart him. In 2009, the title has gone digital--The Taking of Pelham 123--and inflation has jumped the asking price to $10 million. Where Shaw's menace was steely, John Travolta opts for manic, and shamelessly has a blast in the master villain role. His adversary, cagily underplayed by Denzel Washington, has been upgraded in civil-service rank but also demoted on suspicion of taking a bribe. This colors the dynamics of the dialogue between Washington at his control-center console and Travolta on the motorman's microphone aboard the stalled train.
So far, so reasonably good. But the director's trademark tactics keep getting between, well, everything. From the get-go, the visuals are subjected to pointless and irritating stutter effects, speeding-up/slowing-down, gratuitous camera movement, and the interposition of dirt- or light-smeared panes of glass between the camera and people we'd appreciate a clear look at. The 1974 movie settled for one police car being wrecked as the ransom is rushed uptown; Scott requires multiple collisions, each the occasion for police cruisers taking Lethal Weapon-style flight. The hostages in the earlier film were wittily individuated, a multicultural group portrait of the city at that mid-'70s moment; the ones on Scott's train--and also Travolta's fellow perpetrators, including that wonderful character actor Luis Guzmán--barely register. On the upside, John Turturro and James Gandolfini shine as two guys who (like the actors themselves) are very good at their jobs—respectively playing a hostage negotiator and His Honor, the mayor. The screenplay by Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Mystic River) strives intelligently, if formulaically, to add new dimensions to the main characters and to offer its own gloss on the current economic meltdown. --Richard T. Jameson
Stills from The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (Click for larger image)
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 Reviews:
Not great. Disappointing. 
2009-12-01 - Tough guy, Ryder (played by John Travolta), has taken a New York City subway train and its passenger's hostage, and will only release them once the mayor has paid $10 million dollars. Meanwhile, transit worker Walter Garber (who is under suspicion of taking a bribe) is the unfortunate dispatcher who Ryder makes contact with, and soon finds himself embarking on a series of tasks to rescue the hostages. There were two really great actors (Travolta & Washington), some snippers, some chase scenes, some really bad guys, an entertaining Mayor, and tons of stuff that should have made this a must see, but I was disappointed. There was so much potential, so many possibilities, but nothing really seemed to connect. There was no follow-thru, and nothing to really justify the mediocre ending of Garber (Washington) walking home with a half-gallon of milk following his showdown with Ryder (Travolta). Not even Travolta's attempt at being a bad guy and using "MF" constantly (although the tattoo on his neck was cute) seem genuine, just forced. What worked for him in Pulp Fiction (tough guy yet likeable) didn't really work here, and while I would love to give this a great review, I can't. But I will give this tale a "2" because I thought the outtakes and extras on the DVD were great.
Queen of Remakes 
2009-11-30 - This film is good. Lots of action although I think the original is better. John Travolta is awesome as usual.
Re-elect Tony Soprano! 
2009-11-30 - Either a major coincidence has occurred every time Denzel was cast for his last 20-something movies where each director successively said to him, "Could you play the same character you played in your last movie?," or Denzel has just found a character comfort zone that he knows the audience will love every time. And indeed the Denzel character works. The last time I saw Denzel not playing the same character that he was playing in The Taking of Pelham 123 was all the way back in 1992's Malcolm X (he played Malcolm X).
And John Travolta as a bad guy? I don't know...for me it just seems as forced as it was in Face/Off. Certainly he was a classic bad guy in Pulp Fiction, but in PF he was a bad guy that you rooted for and loved. In Taking of Pelham 123 I just couldn't take Travolta's portrayal too seriously.
Now that all said about Washington and Travolta, I was entertained by Tony Scott's remake of Taking of Pelham 123. Simple story: Travolta hijacks a subway train in NYC, and Washington is in the subway traffic control room as liaison between the good guys and bad guys. Scott keeps the movie rolling down the track with some decent suspenseful action. The cops and Washington's superiors are idiots (as Hollywood so predictably and consistently casts) and mild mannered Denzel tries to save the day.
The movie gets an R from the MPAA not so much for some mildly graphic shootings, but more so for perhaps winning the 2009 "most utterances of the F word" award.
All in all, I was entertained. But this remake of Taking of Pelham 123 is far from worthy of purchase for your collection, but it certainly squeaks by as a candidate worthy of your rental queue...at minimum check it out when it comes out on cable or satellite.
Oh, one more character comment: Tony Soprano as Mayor? Really?
The Taking of Pelham 123
2009-11-30 - THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123
STARRING: Denzel Washington, John Travolta, Luis Guzman, John Turturro and James Gandolfini
WRITTEN BY: Brian Helgeland; based on the novel by John Godey
DIRECTED BY: Tony Scott
Rated: R
Genre: Action / Thriller
Release Date: 12 June 2009
My two favorite actors in Hollywood are Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. While I did like The Taking of Pelham 123, I'm surprised Denzel took the job. Personally, I think this role was a little beneath him; but he just made the film that much better by being a part of it.
John Travolta is an extraordinary actor who makes really good movies and really bad ones. Without Denzel in the corner with him, this more than likely would have been a bad one.
The film is very entertaining and has its moments; but having these two in the leads, (let alone the phenomenal directing of Tony Scott), it should have been flawless.
Travolta gets the film going right away. He plays Ryder; a tough felon who's fed up with the harsh ways of his city. He explodes onto the screen by pulling a gun on a woman operating a train, giving her a command and promising to her,
"Do it, or I'll kill you." Powerful stuff.
Travolta plays Ryder so well that you don't know whether to like him or fear him. One minute you are laughing with him and the next you are baffled and taken aback by his very limited but amusing vocabulary. He has a catch phrase he must say at least half a dozen times in the film with the initials M.F. Some will find offensive and obnoxious but I found it fit his character quite nicely.
He is one of the few actors out there who can play a villain every bit as well as he can a hero, if not better. If you need proof check out Face/off; you get both performances in the same film.
Ryder and a group of his personal thugs take a subway train called Pelham 123, hostage on a busy morning in New York. Garber (Denzel Washington) is the poor soul on the other end of the mike who takes his ransom demands. Garber works for the city in a subway trafficking control center downtown.
Ryder demands ten million dollars and one cent from the city of New York in exchange for the hostages. I won't tell you what the one cent is for but I promise you, it stems from brilliant writing.
Soon the Feds and the Mayor get involved. James Gandolfini plays the Mayor and John Turturro plays the lead FBI agent. I'm surprised both of these two signed on for the film as well. Don't get me wrong, it's a good movie; it just doesn't seem to be quite as good as you would expect it to be with all of the Hollywood big shots involved. I didn't feel that these two characters were deserving of such great actors to portray them. Neither of them had much of an ark and their dialogue was mediocre. But I suppose Gandolfini and Turturro and everyone else on board knew that Denzel and Travolta would be the main attractions in the film, so it's forgivable.
Denzel does a knock out job of playing an everyday guy here. He is talked down to by several characters in the film to include his boss who we want to kick in the head and especially by Ryder. His character doesn't comeback with big-screen one liners. He reacts in a much more civilized way as he tries to de-escalate the situation continuously. Towards the end of the film, he gets his hands on a gun and you buy that he probably never held one before; despite the fact that we've seen him bearing arms in countless films.
I particularly enjoyed the part of the film where Ryder gets Garber to disclose something personal. The two of them are not even in the scene together physically but their acting seal both sets together and we forget their distance throughout the course of the film.
The film is oozing with Tony Scott's classic trademark cinematography and well choreographed action sequences. It moves at a very steady pace to its highly anticipated climax.
The end of the film was terrific. We get exactly what we want and we aren't cheated out of closure or believability. What makes The Taking of Pelham 123 better than the other action flicks of the summer of 2009, is that it relies on the good performances of it's actors to keep the story afloat rather than the action. Any film can have well put together action scenes but when you believe the characters that are thrown into the middle of that action and you can identify with them, that's what makes a movie!
I liked the physical characteristics that each of these great talents added to their movie people. Denzel seems to have put on weight and wears some goofy looking glasses. Travolta is complete with a goatee, prison tats and side burns. The two feel like real people you could meet on a busy New York subway any day of the week. Hopefully you'd run into more Garbers than Ryders.
Don't Miss Out On This 
2009-11-28 - This is an excellent item. There is so much ation going on that you will not be able to breathe. You will not be disappointed. Buy it.
