OyeG Review

‘Dream team’ is what I would call the ensemble of the film. With Denzel Washington pitted against John Travolta in a Jeffery Archer style high-speed Good Vs. Bad thriller, there is no chance for any studio to go wrong. Atleast when the sole intention is to earn great bucks! These days packaging a product is of utmost importance and studios habitually deceive the audience by making outstanding promos to bring them to the theaters. What the audience sees in the theaters is a totally contradictory substandard movie. This is exactly what happens with The Taking of Pelham!

Adapted from John Godley’s novel, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is a cat and mouse thriller that stars Denzel Washington as Walter Garber, a New York city subway correspondent whose ordinary day is thrown into pandemonium and confusion by a premeditated crime - The hijack of a subway Train. Ryder (John Travolta) the mastermind and the person in charge of a highly-armed gang of four, threatens to exterminate the train's passengers unless a large ransom is paid within one hour. With the clock ticking rapidly Garber has to make use of his vast familiarity of the subway system in a battle to outsmart Ryder and save the hostages. But there's one mystery ……even if the thieves get the money, how can they possibly escape?

Direction

Vigorous and restless as ever, Director Tony Scott uses his technical wizardry along with deft editing to make a highly entertaining but a logic-less remake of the adored 70s suspense thriller The Taking of Pelham 123. What works in the film’s favour is the fact that the director knows that he is not making a classic but an entertaining film for the mass audience.

Just like his previous film Déja Vu, Tony Scott exaggerates the tension in the plot by using futuristic gigantic hi-tech screens, over the top chase sequences and cheeky one-liners.

Script/Story

“Life is simple now. They just have to do what I say. We all owe God a death!” - With dialogues like these the film ends up being a poor man’s Reservoir Dogs, In fact what’s funnier is that the Reservoir Dogs was inspired by the 70’s version of the same film. In the effort to entertain the audience the film loses all the coherence in the plot and ends up being a ridiculous, irrational thriller.

Performances

Denzel Washington is as dependable as always. He underplays the role of a commoner fabulously. Tony Scott always manages to extract something new from the actor since the actor–director duo has done 6 films together. John Travolta hysterically repeats his Face Off act; he completely fails to add any layer to his caricature character in the film. James Gandolfini as a hardheaded sensible Mayor is refreshing and gets all the best lines in the film.