DVD Release Date: November 3, 2009
Theatrical Release Date: June 12, 2009
Rating: R (for violence and pervasive language)
Genre: Drama
Run Time: 106 min.
Director: Tony Scott
Actors: John Travolta, Denzel Washington, Luis Guzman, John Turturro, James Gandolfini, Victor Gojcaj, Alex Kaluzhsky, John Benjamin Hickey
Actor Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott have a good thing going. Beginning with Crimson Tide in 1995 and continuing with Man on Fire in 2004 and Déjà Vu in 2006, the director/actor combo has generated hit action films, with worldwide grosses of $157 million for Tide, and $130 million for Fire and $180 million for Déjà Vu.
Their fruitful partnership continues with The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, a remake of a 1974 film that starred Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw that has two solid lead performances, but which suffers from certain excesses common to modern-day action films.
The current incarnation brings things decidedly into the twenty-first century, as our villain, who goes by the name of Ryder (John Travolta), manipulates commodities prices and tracks the stock market through an underground Internet connection. (When transit worker Walter Garber [Washington] calculates Ryder's ransom demand and asks about a one-cent discrepancy, Ryder tells him to keep the change: "That's your broker's fee," he says.) Add a steamy boyfriend/girlfriend relationship heightened through the wonders of streaming video on a laptop and we know we're not in 1974 any longer.
Garber is a recently demoted New York City transit operator who stands accuses of taking a bribe. Ryder is the crazed leader of a team that hijacks a subway car and threatens to kill all of the passengers unless his demand of a $10 million ransom is met within an hour. That demand sets off a hurried scheme that draws in the city's mayor (James Gandolfini), his right-hand man (John Benjamin Hickey) and a seasoned hostage negotiator (John Turturro) who fails spectacularly in his first attempt to supplant Garber as Ryder's intermediary.
The villains' motives are explained in due time, but the mechanics of the scheme—millions of dollars delivered to a stranded underground subway car, followed by the bad guys' escape—stretches credulity. The addition of an always-on laptop that streams video between a passenger and his significant other breaks whatever spell the filmmakers manage to create.
As for the performers, Washington is solid if undistinguished as Garber, while Travolta can't quite modulate Ryder's calm, controlled negotiations with his crazy, over-the-top rants. His attempts to find common ground with Garber by pitting them against a common enemy come off as manic and forced.
