pelham

Starring:

Denzell Washington, John Travolta, James Gandolfini, John Turturro and Luis Guzman

Director: Tony Scott

Genre: Drama,Thriller

Rated: R

4 armed men hijack a New York City Subway train and hold the passengers hostage for a 10 million dollar ransom.  The mastermind behind the crime refuses to negotiate with police and instead works only with a dispatcher who is accused of taking a bribe.

The taking of Pelham 123 is another remake and proof that Hollywood feels that all they need to do in this day and age is to take an old story and update the visuals. John Travolta stars as Ryder a disenfranchised New Yorker who blames the system and the city for forcing him to hijack the Pelham Train. Ryder only wants to work with Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) a dispatcher who he finds out has bribe allegations against him by the City of New York.  Any suspense or tension delivered between Travolta and Washington is quickly thrown away by the jarring visuals and frenetic editing.  Director Tony Scott finally pushes his visual style in a way that is no longer inventive and now is just unnecessary, distracting and ultimately annoying. From the overuse of the Google Maps type shot to the camera spinning around the actors. There is a scene where a motorcade is delivering the money and there are numerous car crashes just for the sake of crashing cars, Quick jump cuts and making loud noises.  The entire 3rd act doesn’t fit with the rest of the film with Denzel carjacking a truck and chasing Travolta through the city he goes from being a mild mannered transit worker to apparently the lead detective on the case hunting down the criminal.  The scene that really puts the cherry on the ridiculous Sunday is Hostage Negotiator Camonetti (John Turturo) flying in a helicopter giving the sign of approval to Washington, I actually cringed.

The Major downfall of Pelham however has to be the feeling that Tony Scott is stealing from himself in terms of his visual style, If you have seen Enemy of the State, Domino, Man on Fire etc. you have already seen this movie. Scott uses every trick he has used a million times before, And that is what this movie is, A movie that you’ve seen before.

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