When it comes to action movies Tony Scott is a man that knows how to deliver and with hits like Top Gun, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Man on Fire and Déjà vu you know he is the guy who can not only direct a great action sequence, but develop a good level of tension. Unfortunately his latest effort, The Taking of Pelham 123, has a weak story and is a bit too predictable.

In The Taking of Pelham 123, Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) has been recently demoted to the position of subway train dispatcher after he is suspected of taking a bride. Unfortunately for him, Ryder (John Travolta) and his cronies, one of them played wonderfully by Luis Guzmán, decide to hijack one of the subway trains under Walter’s watch. Ryder is not playing games and he shows how dangerous he is right from the start. With the assistants of a NYPD hostage negotiator Camonetti (John Turturro) and the Mayor (James Gandolfini) they attempt to stall for time. But why would everybody hijack a subway train? That’s the question that will intrigue most of the audience.

The hijacking of the subway train was the question that most intrigued me and I guess I was hoping for something big, because when the question was finally answered I was a bit disappointed. I also hate the fact that they kept referring to Ryder as a criminal mastermind when everything he did was just plain dump. For some reason this movie reminded me a bit of the movie Inside Man, maybe because of Denzel, but in that movie you have no doubt the Clive Owen’s Dalton is a criminal master mind. Likewise in Inside Man you find that the movie is always three steps ahead of the audience, but as for Pelham the audience is always three steps ahead of the movie. I don’t think I found one since moment surprising.

So what’s good about the movie, well the performances for one thing. It’s been a while since I’ve since Travolta act crazy like he did in Face/Off, Broken Arrow and Swordfish. His performance here is just as good and intense as in those three movies. He also manages to pulls off some of the funnies dialog in the movie. Washington is good but I’m getting tired of him playing the same character over and over again. Here he plays the exact same guy he played in his last four movies. James Gandolfini and John Turturro also turn in good supporting performances and Luis Guzmán who always plays an underdog gives it his all with what little he is given.

For a summer movie this movie doesn’t have neither much action nor special effects. However there is one awesome car crash near the end of the movie, but the special effects amount to a camera panning in and out of a Google map. Overall this movie manages to be fairly entertaining, but if you’re looking for anything more than an action movie, like an action movie with substance look elsewhere.

Review By Milton Brayson
milton@smartcine.com

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