Justin at the Movies

The Taking of Pelham 123

// November 9th, 2009 // Reviews

by Justin

Starring: Denzel Washington, John Travolta, John Turturro, James Gandolfini

Director: Tony Scott

Rated: R (Language)

Justin’s Rating: 2.5/5

The Taking of Pelham 123 is a decent thriller that has nothing really of substance to offer other than pure entertainment. Ryder (John Travolta) hijacks a subway train so he can exchange the hostages lives for millions of dollars. Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) is the control center operator on the other end of the line that receives the call from Ryder. Ryder gives the city of New York one hour to give him ten million dollars or he will kill one passenger for every minute that they are late in delivering the money to him. That’s pretty much all there is to this movie. Obviously the city of New York tries to figure out a way to get the hostages back safely without having to comply with Ryder’s demands. This whole thing start to finish is just like every other hostage negotiation movie ever made. The performances are nothing to rave about and John Travolta’s character is completely flat with no clear motives. The movie does start right away which was good, and it is pretty well paced. I would only recommend this movie to those that want to be entertained at the very basic level and don’t want anything more. However….

Is there any way that we can get some originality back in hollywood? Absolutely nothing about this movie is original. And when I say absolutely nothing, I mean absolutely nothing. First off, it’s a remake. Gee that’s weird. There aren’t any other remakes out there being made are there? Secondly, the characters. Denzel Washington is always one of two guys. He is either the cop hero, or the common citizen hero. In this movie he plays the common citizen hero. I know you may be thinking, “whatever, in Training Day he was a bad cop.” If that is what you are thinking for the defense of his characters than you are beyond help. I realize he was great in ‘Glory,’ but he hasn’t done anything since that strays to far away from what I have said. Don’t get me wrong, I love Denzel Washington as an actor and a person (because I know him personally of course) I just wish that he would branch out a little bit. He is very talented and I would like to see him utilize it more.

Then we have John Travolta. This movie features John Travolta’s bad guy character. He also is only two characters, his good guy character and his bad guy character. I realize that in film you are either the protagonist or the antagonist, but every time he is a “bad guy” he is the same bad guy character and every time he is the “good guy” he is the same good guy character. His character in The Taking of Pelham 123 is the same character that you will see in ‘Swordfish’ and ‘The Punisher.’ It consists of him yelling constantly and shouting the “F” word as much as possible. That’s what he does. As I said before, if you are looking to just stare at the screen and and find enjoyment at the very basic level, then this is the movie for you. If, however, you want to watch a good film that is well written and consists of good overall performances, then you may want to look elsewhere.

Better Denzel Films:
Glory
Philadelphia
Training Day

Better Travolta Films:
Pulp Fiction
…
…