Post by dvdjunkie on Jun 21, 2009 8:15:29 GMT -6
First of all, everyone knows how I feel about remakes, but let me tell you this was one fun ride. Originally made in 1974 "Pelham" starred Walter Matthau, Jerry Stiller, Robert Shaw, Hector Elizondo, and Earl Hindman (Wilson from "Home Improvement"), and it was a very good movie.
This time around we have Tony Scott in the Director's Chair, and for the fourth movie is working with his friend, Denzel Washington, again. Washington plays Walter Garbe, Chief of the MTA, who also is under suspicion of taking a bribe, but that is not the main story of this movie. John Travolta is a man called Ryder, who has hi-jacked one of Garbe's trains, Pelham 123 and is holding the passengers on board for a ransom of $10 million and that said ransom has to be paid within one hour or Ryder will execute one passenger every minute that the ransom delivery is delayed.
The dialogue between Washington and Travolta sets this movie's pace, and is brilliantly written and presented by two of the best actors in the business today. John Turturro plays the Chief Hostage Negotiator for the New York Police Department, and is a stabilizing force between Travolta and Washington's dialogue.
James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) is along as the Mayor of the Big Apple, and is sort of a cross between Mayors Bloomberg and Guiliani. He is basically the comic relief in the movie and is never a distraction from the actual story.
Tony Scott knows how to direct a tense, action thriller. Remember "Crimson Tide", "Man on Fire", "The Last Boy Scout", or "Enemy of the State"?? When there is some action needed to spice up the dialogue we got a couple of very good chases through the streets of New York that don't look staged at all, and there is enough action underground in the New York subway system to provide thrills for more than the two hours of this film's running time.
It is difficuilt to compare the movies to each other. The original '74 version let Matthau provide a lot of the comedy relief, that he did so well, and this new verion comes complete with updated technology that sometime turns into a nightmare for all concerned.
A couple of drawbacks to this movie, and they are very minor ones - the dialogue of Travolta is spiced with the four letter expletives we all have heard so much, but hearing almost of all of those seven-letter words that are just as bad, gets to be annoying in the movie because they aren't really needed. The second point is the actress who plays Washington's wife in the movie, and I don't remember her name, is not given enough to do. In fact, her appearance in the trailer for the movie is about all that you ever see her in, and with the impending investigation into this bribery scandal, she should have had a bigger part.
Nonetheless, I will rank this 'remake' as one of the better ones to come along in quite some time and on the Junkie-Meter it gets a strong 3.5 stars, deducting a halfpoint because it is a remake and my disgust with Hollywood's lack of originality.
Check this one out, if you a great roller coaster ride without all the crowds at the local amusement park.
This time around we have Tony Scott in the Director's Chair, and for the fourth movie is working with his friend, Denzel Washington, again. Washington plays Walter Garbe, Chief of the MTA, who also is under suspicion of taking a bribe, but that is not the main story of this movie. John Travolta is a man called Ryder, who has hi-jacked one of Garbe's trains, Pelham 123 and is holding the passengers on board for a ransom of $10 million and that said ransom has to be paid within one hour or Ryder will execute one passenger every minute that the ransom delivery is delayed.
The dialogue between Washington and Travolta sets this movie's pace, and is brilliantly written and presented by two of the best actors in the business today. John Turturro plays the Chief Hostage Negotiator for the New York Police Department, and is a stabilizing force between Travolta and Washington's dialogue.
James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) is along as the Mayor of the Big Apple, and is sort of a cross between Mayors Bloomberg and Guiliani. He is basically the comic relief in the movie and is never a distraction from the actual story.
Tony Scott knows how to direct a tense, action thriller. Remember "Crimson Tide", "Man on Fire", "The Last Boy Scout", or "Enemy of the State"?? When there is some action needed to spice up the dialogue we got a couple of very good chases through the streets of New York that don't look staged at all, and there is enough action underground in the New York subway system to provide thrills for more than the two hours of this film's running time.
It is difficuilt to compare the movies to each other. The original '74 version let Matthau provide a lot of the comedy relief, that he did so well, and this new verion comes complete with updated technology that sometime turns into a nightmare for all concerned.
A couple of drawbacks to this movie, and they are very minor ones - the dialogue of Travolta is spiced with the four letter expletives we all have heard so much, but hearing almost of all of those seven-letter words that are just as bad, gets to be annoying in the movie because they aren't really needed. The second point is the actress who plays Washington's wife in the movie, and I don't remember her name, is not given enough to do. In fact, her appearance in the trailer for the movie is about all that you ever see her in, and with the impending investigation into this bribery scandal, she should have had a bigger part.
Nonetheless, I will rank this 'remake' as one of the better ones to come along in quite some time and on the Junkie-Meter it gets a strong 3.5 stars, deducting a halfpoint because it is a remake and my disgust with Hollywood's lack of originality.
Check this one out, if you a great roller coaster ride without all the crowds at the local amusement park.