The Taking of Pelham 123

Released: 2009

MPAA rating: R

Run time: 1:46

My first mistake was to watch the original version of this earlier in the year. The original was a solid tense drama with Robert Shaw as the cold-as-ice villain. While I will not rip Travolta, his villains tend to be more over-the-top and manic. His performance was fine and I think it was what was called for in this version, but Shaw was so much better. The problem, right off the bat, with this version is it was all style over substance. As soon as the movie begins, there is a "stutter-style" of the visuals with a rap soundtrack playing over the opening titles, which sets the stage that this will be a "cool movie". Denzel Washington and John Travolta do their part, but the writing is a bit off, which is odd, considering they had great source material to start with. They actually over-wrote this thing, adding backstories to the main characters that weren't there before. In Travolta's case, he is supposed to be some Wall Street cheat out of prison, but Wall Street types would not be so tattooed and "bad ass". His character is also more than comfortable with referring to an Italian character as a "greaseball" multiple times, but yet uses no ethnic slurs on any other group! This was not an awful movie and if you didn't see the original, you might actually enjoy it. Travolta and Denzel make it somewhat enjoyable, but I could not help but be disappointed.

Grade: C-

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