The Taking of Pelham 123 / As the year has progressed, director Tony Scott seems to have developed ADD. It’s easy to overlook how many decent or important milestones in contemporary pop culture he has been a part of, from Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop 2 to True Romance and Crimson Tide. Lacking the artistry of his brother Ridley, he was perfect for these crowd-pleasing popcorn flicks. All he needed to do was make sure the camera was pointed in the right direction and his stars were lit in the most flattering of light. But something happened around Spy Game. He began inserting a frenetic editing style into his narratives with a camera that wouldn’t stop moving, even when filming stationary characters. His alternately warm, shadowy and neon-bathed hues digressed into film grain so thick and black that it practically looked like gnats were attacking his actors. His latest project can only be the pinnacle of his new “style.”

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is a remake of the 1974 semi-classic The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (we no longer need to spell out numbers in film titles, it seems). The original was a kicky, fast-paced thriller with a formula that would later be used as “The Die Hard Model”: terrorists take over something (this time a train), and only one man can save the hostages. (For that matter, could Steven Seagal’s Under Siege 2 also be considered a remake? Nevermind.) The original also experienced a bit of a renaissance in the ’90s; Quentin Tarantino cribbed the script’s use of color codes for the anonymous bad guys’ names in Reservoir Dogs.

Here, the leader Mr. Blue is known as Ryder, a man of mysterious origins who takes over the train coming out of Pelham, New York at 1:23pm. The role ominously played by Robert Shaw is now inhabited by John Travolta and his creepy yet completely unbelievable facial hair. Coupled with sunglasses, neck tats and a skull cap, he looks less baller and more like a lost member of the Village People. Ryder and his team take the public transit vehicles hostage for ransom. If he doesn’t get his money, passengers will die.

Travolta just shouldn’t do villains anymore. The evil roles bring out the worst in him and his tendency to overact would’ve even got him kicked out of Drag Me to Hell. While his over-the-top sense of villainy was perfect for John Woo’s sense of opera in Broken Arrow and Face/Off, he just can’t seem to keep his evil theatrics in reasonable control, as evidenced in Swordfish, The Punisher and now in Pelham.

While Travolta screams “motherf*cker” every chance he gets, the movie is held together by Denzel Washington. He plays Walter Garber, a laconic everyman dispatcher whose background is also cloudy. He’s the one who takes the initial ransom demand call and Ryder only wants to negotiate with him, not the smug FBI agent assigned to the case (John Turturro). Reportedly having gained more than 40 pounds to play Garber, Washington manages to be almost as frumpy as the original’s Water Matthau, but he brings a bit of bourgeoisie street cred to the character. (Bruce Willis would have had a field day with the part, though.)

The real star of the film is editor Chris Lebenzon, a frequent crew member of Tim Burton projects. The film’s tension comes from the skillfully cut back-and-forth jumps between Washington and Travolta as they verbally spar over the phone. The editing moves the story along with the right amount of conflict and manages to create a rapport between two stars who don’t share screen time until the film’s end, but it’s too bad Scott didn’t keep his camera from moving as well. When the mayor of New York City (James Gandolfini) is informed of the crisis, the camera circles him for no real good reason other than to give an unnecessary, distracting merry-go-round effect.

As good as Washington is, he can’t save what amounts to an uninspired retread of a summer thriller. Added car crashes, updates to the story line to include the Internet and a misguided underlying theme of corruption in post-9/11 politics only pad the film’s overlength. Moviegoers looking for contemporary urban thrills would be better served by rewatching a few John McClane flicks filmed with stable, mounted cameras. Yippee-ki-yay.

Found on YouTube

Super groovy score by David Shire for 70’s Masterpiece ” The Taking of Pelham 123.”

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