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The Taking Of Pelham 123 is forth collaboaration between director, Tony Scott, and star Denzel Washington after Crimson Tide, Man On Fire and Deja Vu. As such, this is EXACTELY the type and quality of movie you'd expect from another pairing of such talents. It's a flashy, exciting, well told thriller. Nuff said.
It's a remake of the Joseph Sargeant thriller of the same name which starred Walter Matthau in the authoritarian role and Robert Shaw as the hijacker. In comparison, the two new leads decide to do their own thing; Denzel does nobel as only Denzel can, althogh he's a little more down-troden than in recent movies. Travolta chooses the opposite path than Shaw's cool, calculating robber; his baddie Ryder, is much more unpredictable and animated. It's a typically enjoyable bad guy routine that Travolta does without breaking a sweat. It's a releif to see John Turturro actually acting after his epileptic gurning in the Transformers sequel, plus acknowledgment to The Guzman for just turning up.
The narrative's been updated to include 35 years of technological advances like laptops, webcams, google, cctv and cell phones. Plot wise it's has a Die Hard style update as the villains plan is more cunning than originally perceived and there's a tacked on chase sequence to allow Washington and Travolta to have that all important face off at the climax. Despite this modern movie convention, it's great to have a big action thriller which revolves around the two main characters sat down talking to each other for most of the movie.
Roll on Unstoppable which will mark Scott and Washington's fifth team-up.
1 comment:
Yeah, Pelham 123 is a cool, stylish drama/thriller with two top notch A listers going noggin to noggin. Washington is dedicated and quietly noble in his everyman role while Travolta is intense, nutty and unpredictible as the bad guy. Tony Scott directs with his more restrained flashy grit and not the bonkers uber-style he used in the likes of Domino or even Man on Fire. The visual flourishes are kept to a minimum. The story and actors are allowed to be the stars. And this is a quality heist tale albeit with a tacked on chase/action ending that isn't really needed. But everything up to that point is very cool indeed.
Good stuff!
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