The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

<a href="http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n104/djariya/?action=view&current=Pelham.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n104/djariya/Pelham.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Trailer:

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Rather than having someone bump up that Useless Remake thread, here's a thread for anyone that plans to see this movie.

I plan to check it out this afternoon. Really looking forward to it.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

This is my most anticipated movie of the summer.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

^ Why?

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

Has anyone seen the original?

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

Has anyone seen the original?

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

Yes, the original is a great, tight little action movie with an awesome soundtrack.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

This is mine as well for the simple reason that it looks Kick Ass and I loved the original. I can't wait to see this.

Plus I like Washington and Travolta.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

Looking forward to this one... you can't beat the actors, and this seems close to the old bruckheimer R-rated summer movies.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

I saw Pelham this afternoon and thought it was pretty good. Wasn't my favorite Denzel, Tony Scott or Travolta, but it kept me entertained for it's 2 hours.

It was actually refreshing in a way to see Denzel play a more normal guy being stuck in an awkward situation than being a badass. I also thought he did a good job displaying the nervousness and tension in handling this situation.

The subway scenes were quite tension filled and clausterphobic. Travolta was a pretty good villain, although he came across as a little cartoonish and over the top at several points in the film.

The Real-Time aspect adding a clock at key points of the film did IMO help it and increase the tension of the hostage situation.

One part of the film that I did not really care for were the scenes with Denzel interacting with his wife on the phone. I know they were trying to make Garber a normal guy with a normal life, wife etc, but I don't think they really added anything to his character.

The ending fell a little flat for me. Overall 90% of the film was solid and I would definitely recommend it if your a fan of Denzel.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

Denzel Washington and Tony Scott reunite once again as lead actor and director for a remake of "The Taking of Pelham 123" (I haven't seen the original). John Travolta joins in the fun as the antagonist, "Ryder", the primary leader of a small group who take over a NYC subway train (nicknamed "Pelham 123") and make demands for the safe return of the hostages onboard. Denzel plays Garber, who is a train jockey for the day (his own backstory provides some bits of fodder for the interplay between Garber and Ryder). James Gandolfini is onboard as the mayor of NYC.

I'm glad that Tony Scott toned down his penchant for lots of quick cuts and garnish color palette, instead, ramping up the action sequences when appropriate, and going with more of a stop motion jump approach at times to service the story.

The interplay between Garber and Ryder is entertaining, and Travolta relishes chewing up scenery when needed to make Ryder's point. The film itself might have flowed a bit better with 5-10 minutes cut from it because it sags a bit in the final act, but it's still rife with dramatic tension and urgency with Ryder's imposed time limit to get him the ranson, else hostages die.

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

This was a pretty good thriller. Nothing special, but it was entertaining. It was good to see Washington just play a regular guy this time. He and Travolta both did a nice job. I wish there was a little less of the Tony Scott frantic style, but overall I thought it was worth watching. It moves along at a fairly brisk pace. I'll likely pick up the BD when it hits.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

I was entertained, but I didn't think the film was good. On a normalized 1-10 scale, I'd give it a 4.0 out of 10.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

Meh. This year's movies are typical Hollywood pablum. Star Trek, Friday the 13th, Wolverine, Pelham 123.... not an original idea among them. All of them are remakes, spin-offs, or re-dos. But the movie-going public laps it up. As long as people are willing to drop $8, $10, more on tickets to see mediocre unoriginal movies, that's all Hollywood will churn out.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

I know. Watchmen and Up were terrible, and Drag Me to Hell was nowhere near as good as the original. Adventureland was a terrible sequel to National Lampoon's Family Vacation, and Inglourious Basterds looks to be just a Saving Private Ryan knock off.

Or not. I thought Star Trek was quite good actually.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

:crap:

Really? Another diatribe on how unoriginal Hollywood is. Thanks for the threadcrap.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

I thought this was OK... I usually hate this sort of ADD style filmmaking but when Tony Scott does it (which he does A LOT) I usually dig it, and this was no exception. It's not amazing but it has some great moments, Travolta and Denzel are good together and I was entertained. Sure the last act is kind of shitty compared to the rest of it, but for a matinee you could do worse.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

Care to post a link to your DVD collection? And if these movies are so beneath you why on earth would you go to see all of them & support all of them? Or are you being that guy that has no clue what he is talking about by criticizing films you haven't even seen?

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

My daughter works at the theater and so far all she's heard is mediocre reviews. Not bad, but don't think you're going to see your favorite movie of the summer. I'm sure we'll go see this with one of her free passes which makes almost any movie worth it.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

Saw it yesterday...mediocre at best. Travolta sucked, I mean really laughably bad. Does he still have any credibility left after Battlefield Earth?

Tony Scott sucks...the editing here was just annoying. Why does there have to be some sort of gimmick in almost every single frame (i.e. slow mo, desaturation, sped-up, quick zooms etc...)?

Everything else about the movie was ok I guess. The story has been done countless times before, and this wasn't really any great entry into the genre.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

I liked it a lot. It built up the tension nicely, DW was terrific as always. JT seemed to enjoy chewing the scenery.

The twist of
was pretty creative.

I did think the payoff was a little anticlimactic though.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

Whoa, that's a lot of ad hominem "-ism" in just two little sentences.

www.invelos.com, username=kenbuzz (surprise!)

1200 or so titles - bout the same as yours. Includes most of the AFI Top 100, lots of mainstream and non-mainstream titles, kids stuff, sci fi, action, musicals, tv, and so forth. Collection #s are generally assigned chronologically, though when I double-dip a movie and give the original away to the local library, that # will get recycled. This results in some of my lowest #s being out of sequence time-wise. Special #s are assigned to movies that were orignially rentals (5000-series), that are VCDs (6000-series), that are shorts that are generally unavailable commercially (like Troops or The Hire, 7000-series), movies that are in the public domain (8000-series), and those that are included within box sets where the set has it's own unique collection # (those movies are in the 9000-series).

I don't believe I'm a movie snob. But the last few times I went to the theatre I've walked away generally disappointed. Only when I took my kid to see Cars, and before that when Moulin Rouge was in the theatres, was I happily surprised by what I saw. Hollywood is in a terrible rut, and like the music industry since the 80's, there's been very little pickings to my liking for a long, long time.

My last 5 DVD purchases were:
Jekyll (R2)
Night at the Museum
4 "Classic" Doctor Whos
Harvey Birdman (S1 & 2)
Reign of Fire

I have on order: Robin Hood (R2) - Series 3. And when DD's sale starts, the two titles at the top of my wishlist are: The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and Torchwood: Children of Earth (provided the sale overlaps the late July release).

Right now, it's mostly TV and stuff for my kid. Except for a few AFI films I don't already have, a couple of non-US HD movies I'm keeping my eye out for, and the assorted one-off flicks (like "Eating Raoul" or "The Bedford Incident"), I've pretty much got all the movies I want.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

PS - I saw "Pelham" back in 1974 when it was new. Now get off my lawn, you whippersnapper!

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

Well, I think your initial post came across more as a threadcrap than any legitimate opinion/criticism/review of this new version which sounds to me you didn't even bother seeing.

It's fine and dandy that you saw the original back when it was brand spanking new in 1974, however, I think your opinion would have been more respected if you saw this movie and offered more articulation and comparison with the original than just saying Hollywood sucks and is in a rut right now.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

I'm actually in agreement with you (I loved Moulin Rouge BTW), about Hollywood being in a rut, (although I thought 2 years ago was an excellent year, Lives of Others, Michael Clayton, The Fall , The Lookout etc). The problem was you are making bold generalizations on movies you haven't seen, & you weren't even attacking the films so much, as the people who see these films, all of which have nothing to do with this thread. And neither does this post I just made, so I'll live it by saying there are still phenomenal films being made, it's just all the more important that you go out & support them.

Re: The Taking of Pelham 123 -- The Reviews/Comments Thread
 

gotta say, i am in the middle of watching the original and it is pretty damn good!