The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

Review by Jason Gaston

 

Loud, over-eager and obnoxious, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, a remake of a movie I haven't seen, only goes to show the dangers of a bad remake - it kills all of the interest that one has in seeing the first and probably better version of the film.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 finds Denzel Washington sleepwalking through the role of Walter Garber, a worker on the New York Subway System who has the bad luck to be on duty when a subway car is hijacked by a mysterious man named Ryder (played by the painfully hammy John Travolta) who demands an exorbitant amount of money or he's going to start killing passengers.  He also only wants to speak to Garber who he trusts for some strange and unknown reason.  Soon, Garder and Ryder find themselves conversing on any number of things, from an investigation into Garber's business dealings to religion and more and, yes, it is about as interesting as it sounds.  It's like listening in on a boring friend's phone calls.

To break up the tedium of this plot point, director Tony Scott takes it upon himself to punish the audience with "hip" camera techniques, sped-up footage, and loud and annoying sounds effects at every turn making this easily the most irritating movie I have seen all year.  It reminded me of the sheer maddening antics of Behind Enemy Lines which couldn't decide if it wanted to be a war movie or an MTV special.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is just maddeningly annoying and frustratingly dull with one actor phoning in a performance and the other hamming it up so much that you can't empathize or even understand where he's coming from.  The ending of the movie is telegraphed so blatantly that, when it comes, nothing about it will surprise you - you'll just be nodding your head along when everything you expect to happen, happens.

Chalk this into the "could've been worse" column.  I didn't have a completely terrible time, after all even when Travolta was hamming it up in Battlefield Earth there was something strangely hypotonic about him.  Still, this is a movie that you will not remember seeing after you see it, it just has that little impact.