The thing with Tony Scott is that I rarely like the trailers for his movies, they very seldom do an awful lot for me but by the time it comes to the big dance and I pay my hard earned cash to see his flicks, I always find that I’ve had a good time with them.
They entertain me. The simplicity of his setups and his ambitions to make good old fashioned genre efforts make for a watchable two hours.
But having said all that, THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 is different. It’s different because I’ve seen with my own eyes how good this story can be. The original 1974 movie is a fabolous thriller from THE decade of thrillers. The great Robert Shaw plays one of the great smart and sly screen villains, who thinks he is better than simply a train robbing terroist. Like Alan Rickman in DIE HARD, he thinks because he talks with a middle-class accent he is better than the average crook but of course we know he’s not.
I watch the trailer for this Summer’s remake and I don’t wanna see John Travolta playing his stock bad guy we have seen so much of in the last ten years. I see Denzel Washington as a clumsy and overweight cop and that’s the problem, I see Denzel Washington NOT someone like Walter Matttau who never looked like he could hold his own in a fight.
I see Travolta’s sidekicks here and the coolness of the Mr. Blue, Mr. Grey from the original seems to have disappeared. These guys look to be just thugs with guns, not real characters that made the villainous group so interesting in the original.
This just looks so mediocre, at best a few episodes of 24 botched together into a badly conceived movie.
It’s desperately trying to be loud, to feel cooler than it is, the trailer uses every gimmick imaginable to grab your attention. It desperately wants to be this decade’s SPEED but it just don’t cut it I’m afraid. You can see the movie from June 12th from Sony Pictures but I would far rather buy the DVD of the original, which you could probably find in a bargin basement bin somewhere. Great movie.
Also, whilst I’m here this week saw the release of a poster for the movie which quite frankly, a comparison with the original tells you all you need to know about this version of THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123. Which one has been made by sweat and blood and which has been doing whilst playing solitaire or browsing porn sites?
source – first showing, aicn
2 Comments
I’ve never seen the original, but Denzel makes me want to see this one.
Travolta brings the excitement level down but seeing Brian Hegeland’s name as the screenwriter gives me hope.
Guess we’ll have to see.
I agree the original is a great film. I actually saw it in a theater when I was a young boy. It’s a classic and captured the feel of NYC at the period as good as a movie can. While the remake won’t be as good the tralier was actually better than I expected. Washington is a good choice for the lead but why go with Travolta as the villian. They should have found a great NON-A list actor for that part.
chuck