The Taking of Pelham 123 [2009] (DVD)

This was not a film that immediately grabbed my attention. Last week's Telegraph had a two page spread on it, and reading that left me quite uninterested. A modern re-make of an old film is always a risk, and the plot here didn't really seem to do much. Then I saw Denzel Washington on the promo tour, chatting with Jonathan Ross, and although the two had a nice raport, neither seemed to be particularly enthused by the film. Ross gave it his regular 'dress a negative up in a positive' by saying "it was a lot of fun", which basically meant 'it was a shallow, crappy film'. Still, there was something about it that made me want to watch it, and last night we sat ...  Read the complete review

In most large cities the metro or subway transports a lot of people around every day. New York has one of the busiest metros around and carries well over 4 million people. The metro is generally efficient. When things go wrong, it is usually through bad weather, renewing new tracks or passengers misbehaving. I use the metro everyday here in Warsaw and what scares me if I let myself think about it is a terrorist attack or a hijacking. This very rarely happens and I don't think it has ever happened in Warsaw but when it does occur I am sure it can be a terrifying ordeal and would scare the hell out of me. Tony Scott's new film, The Taking of Pelham ...  Read the complete review

Often, film remakes are considered unnecessary, especially when the original film is a classic in its own right - and this is arguably the case with Tony Scott's 'The Taking of Pelham 123' which updates Joseph Sargent's 1974 thriller. The story revolves around 'Ryder' (John Travolta), who, alongside a group of machine gun wielding heavies, hijacks a New York subway train full of hostages, and demands a multi-million dollar ransom. With a deadline of one hour, Ryder claims he will kill a hostage for every minute the ransom is late - but will he go through with his deadly threat? Meanwhile, in the subway control centre, Walter Garber (Denzel ...  Read the complete review

Remakes of old films or the making of films from old television series seems to be all the rage these days. Apparently, this version of the 1974 film "The Taking of Pelham 123" is an update rather than a remake, but that's just semantics, as it amounts to more or less the same thing. I've not seen the original, but given that these remakes tend to be lesser films than the original, based on this version, that must be an impressive film indeed, as this version is pretty good. It seems like a normal day in New York City and the collection of mean and dangerous looking people on various subway platforms isn't anything unusual in any major city. In ...  Read the complete review

Continuing its current lack of imagination, yet another remake rolls into town. This time it's the turn of The Taking of Pelham 123, originally a 1974 film about the hijacking of a train, now retooled as a vehicle for Denzel Washington and John Travolta. I freely admit to being sceptical about this one when I went in. Hollywood's track record on remakes is not great and I saw not reason why this should be any different. As it turns out, it's a pretty watchable; solid, without every being anything special it passes a couple of hours and could have been so much worse. Part of the reason for this lies in the fast paced style of both writer Brian ...  Read the complete review