The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

Oscar winner Denzel Washington , after a spin aboard the 6 train in "The Taking of Pelham 123," is back on the Broadway local. The handsome star of the big screen returns to the Great White Way next April as the lead in a revival of August Wilson 's Pulitzer Prize -winning drama "Fences." Washington, 54, was last seen on Broadway in 2005 playing Brutus in the revival of " Julius Caesar ."  

Once upon a time, fashioning an action epic movie took more than just a big budget — it required some real imagination, not just to come up with the ideas for the storylines, but to figure out how to bring larger-than-life situations to life onscreen. The results were often laughable, but just as often, they introduced some real visual thrills and filmmaking innovations — stuff that really made you wonder how it was made. These days, all the world's a digital playground, and although filmgoers ...  

The family has re-introduced itself to the spotlight in promotion of daughter Ella Bleu's new movie. ' Old Dogs ,' a comedy scheduled for release on November 25th, will be her feature-film debut. "We decided it was OK to come out and promote, to introduce her to the world and to give her a beautiful future in film," said Travolta.

We decided it was OK to come out and promote, to introduce her to the world and to give her a beautiful future in film   -Travolta

 

Fast-forward to this year. Pelham One Two Three is once again being taken, but this time it's Pelham 1 2 3 (the fewer words people have to read, the better). Walter Matthau is Denzel Washington .  

If turning on a DVD to get stuck in the subway for two hours may not be something that sounds like a swell plan for getting away from it all, the underground thriller The Taking Of Pelham 123 is not likely to change your mind on that score. A movie about a heist on a midtown subway train targeting a car full of passengers, The Taking Of Pelham 123 might leave viewers feeling a lot like hostages themselves for the duration, at the hands of director Tony Scott. Who seems to have a bit of a contact ...  

Denzel Washington seems constitutionally incapable of turning in a bad performance, and he and John Travolta make the remake of "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" a very respectable popcorn movie. Washington is Walter Garber, a New York City subway dispatcher who finds himself negotiating with hijackers who have taken over a subway train. Ryder (Travolta) is the ruthless ringleader of the gang of four holding a carload of passengers hostage and demanding $10 million to free them.  

Against all odds and better advice, Tony Scott directs Denzel Washington and John Travolta in a remake of the kidnap classic. And he improves on it. Pelham '09 finds its groove in the here and now, just as the original Pelham did in 1974, with more complications and fewer laughs.  

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME MINOR SPOILERS. The Taking of Pelham 123 , a remake of the 1974 classic of the same name and adapted from the novel by John Godey, follows a New York City subway dispatcher, Walter Garber ( Denzel Washington ), caught up in a hostage crisis. When the eponymous train is hijacked underground by a mysterious bad guy dubbed "Ryder" ( John Travolta ) and his goons (including Luis Guzmán), Garber finds himself the villain's unwilling conduit to the authorities.  

Tony Scott directs this remake/update of the 1974 thriller about the hijacking of a New York subway train in the tunnels. The original has become something of a blue-collar cult film and is best forgotten when approaching this slickly efficient and almost generically stylized take on the story. Denzel Washington is a disgraced New York transit official who is thrust into the middle of a hostage situation when a gang leader ( John Travolta ) insists he remain on the other end of the tunnel radio as he makes his demands.