Eugene Nghttps://youtu.be/cpOVOiYh8Ig
Director Tony Scott’s The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is a remake of the hit 1974 film. Starring Hollywood’s evergreen actors Denzel Washington as Walter Garber and John Travolta as Ryder, this suspense thriller starts off with cool on-screen visual effects showing obscure and blurry close-ups of hitmen set to Jay Z’s “99 Problems” as background music.
The plot of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 revolves around 4 armed villains who hijacked a subway train to demand ransom for the hostages. New York City subway dispatcher Walter Garber (Washington), who is in charge of maintaining the subway traffic control, just happened to be the fateful person that the perpetrators contacted.
Ryder (Travolta) the main perpetrator and mastermind is a New York Wall Street trader who is resentful after spending time in jail for a case of major fraud and wants to give the city “a run for its money”. Within moments, the whole of New York City is plunged into a race against time to fetch the US$10 million ransom [S$14 million] that Ryder asked for before he starts shooting hostages every minute.
Over the course of the negotiation, Garber and Ryder soon build a strange love-hate relationship. At some point, both will be attacking each other’s weaknesses and next thing you know they’re complimenting each other out of healthy mutual respect. But mind games aside, these engagements showed the contrast between the clichéd good-bad relationships even clearer. Ryder, a hard-edged profanity spewing character along with the good mannered and persuasive Garber trying to calm him down gives this movie a few heart stopping moments.
In the midst of all this talking, the mayor (James Gandolfini) decides to pay the ransom. This marks the start of a high-speed road sequence as police officers race across the city in a bid to deliver the money in time. In my opinion, it was a needless scene thrown in by director Scott in a bid to lengthen the movie. This was even noted by the mayor himself as he asked angrily, “Why didn’t they move the money by helicopter?” when told that the drivers have been involved in an accident.
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 also featured some other familiar faces. John Turturro (Transformers) plays Lieutenant Camonetti, head of the NYPD hostage negotiation team and Luis Guzmán (Fast Food Nation) is Phil Ramos, one of Ryder’s accomplices. However, the main characters of Washington and Travolta shadowed all these other famous stars.
Washington, like all his other roles in Inside Man and Man on Fire, did a great job by endearing himself to the audience with his good acting skills and wonderful charisma. However, his role in this movie is somewhat like the other roles we’re so used to seeing Washington play in the movies mentioned above. But nonetheless, we never get bored of him. Likewise, Travolta did an equally wonderful job even though his baddie character is almost like the ones in Swordfish and Face/Off. Crazy and eccentric, his relentless shouting matches perfectly with the hyper cutting (fast cutting of scenes) in the movie, adding to the suspense and breath taking moments.
Although another average hostage-negotiation thriller, in the lines of Speed, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 has a good plot and cool editing, which makes this movie worth your money. However, you will not lose out even if you do not catch it unless you are a Washington or Travolta fan of course!
Cast: Denzel Washington, John Travolta, John Turturro and Luis Guzman
Director: Tony Scott
Genre: Thriller
Opens: June 11, 2009
Run Time: 105min
Rating: NC16 – Coarse Language & Violence with Chinese Subtitles