The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)

The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)

4/10

Starring

Denzel Washington

John Travolta

Directed by Tony Scott

The Taking of Pelham 123 is a film pumped with over macho performances of one angry bad guy and an overly determined good guy. It almost forgot to entertain and just dived into what could be classified as a dick measuring contest with so much noise and too little reason for there to be.

At some point it seemed to drag, but that’s was the idea of Tony Scott the director of one man trying to get ransom for his hostages. This is a remake of the original which was released in 1974 I have not seen that one, but at this moment I am looking forward to it. As the original is said to be betrayed by this remake.

John Travolta and Denzel Washington performances lacked the needed intensity to make their points matter and they just relied on their looks to pass the message across.

The movie is based on a book of the same name by Morton Freedgood. The plot starts strong, we have our lead bad guy a man who calls himself Ryder (John Travolta) with the help of his men hijack a train, Pelham 123. They take the passengers on the train hostage. A ransom call is made to the train dispatcher which is received by Walter (Denzel Washington), Ryder demands a ransom of $10 million in cash to be paid within sixty minutes. He warns that every minute after the deadline he will execute a passenger.

As things develop, Ryder imposed his choices on the police when they come to take over the negotiations by killing the motorman. He requests to continue conversing with Walter. The happenings on the train is being monitored by the officers as one of the laptops in the train connected to the internet and the control room was able to see.

There is more happening other than the hijacking and we start to get an idea of that as the movie develops. We also get to know about Walter’s past, as we discover that he is not supposed to be working where he was, but because he is under investigations for taking a bribe.

The movie is also the second to the last directorial work by Tony Scott before he killed himself. The movie was both a commercial and critical failure with many critics wondering why there was a need for a remake of the 1974 classic. I have no reason to recommend anyone to see this movie as there is no point for its existence in the first place.