PRINTMovie Review: The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Courtesy of Sony Pictures
John Travolta as Ryder holds a NYC subway train hostage and demands a $10 million ransom.
June 13, 2009 | 12:00 p.m. CST
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, the newest hostage movie to hit the screen, has a bit of everything -- car chases, explosions, brain matter and men wearing diamond studs.
In this film, Walter Garber (Denzel Washington), a polite NYC subway dispatcher, is managing the trains from the control station when he gets a call from a thug, Ryder (John Travolta), who has taken over a train full of people. He wants $10 million within the hour; if his demands aren’t met he will kill a person for every minute he has to wait.
This movie could have been really good. It certainly has its moments where you’ll squeeze the armrest until it hurts because you’re so nervous for the people on screen. Washington does a good job of pulling the viewer in.
Overall, though, the filming of the movie is cheesy and dizzying. The weird slow-motion shots mimic a YouTube video that hadn’t finished loading yet, so it’s real choppy.
Also, Travolta’s acting feels contrived. He can’t play a bad guy convincingly anymore. Sure, he pulled it off well in Pulp Fiction, but now he’s older, balding, has weird sideburns and sports a diamond stud in his ear. None of that is threatening. He also throws around a lot of gratuitous cursing, which sounds forced.
However, Ryder is actually the kind of bad guy you want to see in a film. He doesn’t play around. If he says he will kill someone, you’re convinced he will. It keeps you on edge because you really never knew who will be the next to go.
Overall, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is a decent take on the thriller genre. It really is hard to tell who is going to be victorious -- the good guys or the bad.
Vox Rating:
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