Four armed men take the Pelham 123 train (leaving the Pelham train station at 13.23) hostage. The leader, Ryder orders dispatcher Walter Garber to get them $10m within the hour or he will start executing hostages.
Soon a game of intelligent conversation between the two men begin, as the funds are organised and delivered.
Direction
Some interesting directing choices by the late Tony Scott, who tries to add style to the film, sadly this falls flat; this includes the frequent ‘slo motion’ moments scattered through the film and the constant time limit pop ups that get obnoxious after a while
Cast/Characters
Denzel Washington plays the character Walter Garber, an homage to the late great Walter Matthau who played Zach Garber in the original film.
John Travolta plays the role of ‘Ryder’ – also an homage to Robert Shaw’s Mr Blue from the 1974 version, whose real name was revealed as Ryder in the end of the film.
John Turturro plays Lt Camonetti, who joins the case midway through the film, and becomes one of Garber’s strongest supporters. Michael Rispoli plays Garber’s antagonistic boss Johnson. James Gandolini plays the Mayor (and a mix between Guiliani and Bloomberg), and Luis Guzman plays one of Ryder’s accomplices (and a homage to Mr Green).
Screenplay/Setting/Themes
As this is a remake of the 1974 film of the same name, (and my previously reviewed), I will at times compare the two – as it takes narratives from that film many times.
We meet Garber, a former bigwig at the MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority), who is under investigation for taking a bribe to get the best trains for NYC. This has caused his new boss to be quite antagonistic towards him throughout the film.
Ryder, and his three comrades take a train hostage, and demand $10 for their return. The “bribe” story has no part here, it is revealed abruptly, confirmed inorganically, and goes nowhere in the grand scheme of things, other than being told by the mayor at the end that the city will ‘go to bat for him.
Travolta’s Ryder is over the top aggressive, and Travolta’s overacting, and constant use of the F word, and calling people motherf*cker becomes almost comical than intimidating. He is supposed to be overly hostile to mirror Washington’s more calm demeanor – but it doesn’t work.
In fact the quartet of villains are more sociopathic than they need to be. What worked in the original was the depth of their characters, their backstories, and their eventual mutiny against each other (Mr Grey v Mr Blue etc). We get none of that here, in fact one of the villains here dies almost straight away with the other two barely getting their names mentioned – let alone any character development.
It also borrows from some of the narrative of the first film, with such moments as; a fired ‘motorman’ working for the bad guy (this time with being the first villain to die, rather than being the only one to survive), and the cops crashing the car on the way to get the money to the bad guys.
This time around we get more of Garber/Ryder scenes together, with Garber the one to deliver the money in this film. There is also silly finale of the film with Garber chasing after Ryder (and an even worse ending than the 74 version).
In terms of whether it holds up as a solid remake, my answer is no. With the changes to the narrative does it stand on its own Barely. It is only okay.
Score/Soundtrack
Somewhat manipulative, and plays to evoke emotions at times.
Overall
Only okay in way of an overall film, and pales in comparison to the original. Travolta’s over acting and constant silly swearing is more laughable than threatening, and the ‘final’ between them will make your eyes role (you’re my g*d da** hero)…
I’m being very generous with this score.
3/5
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