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How About You Sit Back And Watch THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE!!!
Hey folks, Harry here... Next Summer Tony Scott is going to present a movie entitled THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE starring Denzel Washington, John Travolta, Luis Guzman, John Turturro, James Gandolfini - an outstanding cast - a script by David Koepp - and it will undoubtedly have wonderful trailers and in all likelihood - it'll be a big film.
However - 35 years prior to next year's release - in 1974 - a perfect combination of ingredients created one of the great film thrillers. It's old fashioned badass seventies filmmaking at its best. Starring a cast of Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, Jerry Stiller - a truly tremendous score by David Shire - and folks - it's a movie that doesn't need CG or larger scale of threat. It is a perfect film for the story it was telling. I wish Tony Scott all the best in his film, but frankly... Denzel Washington and John Travolta... are no Walter Matthau or Robert Shaw. The look and feel of a Seventies New York is something that just can't be beat - it's a character all its own in films of this era. It's the New York of TAXI DRIVER - a town - an adult town... not necessarily a friendly or welcoming place - It's a film very much entrenched in its area - with fantastic riveting performances by Matthau and Shaw.
Why am I talking about it? Well today it popped up on HULU to be able to share with you with limited commercial interruptions. It is rated R - so you'll have to deal with an age gate registration - but if you've never seen this film - and you haven't acquired it on DVD yet - here's an absolutely free chance to embrace this fantastic film from the heart of the Seventies. Enjoy...
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Taking of Pelham One Two Three is one of the coolest movies ever. And that opening theme, godDAMN. I have the dvd but I'm glad I can watch this Hulu version at work now. ps - go to hell, Tony Scott.
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Oh yes. So fine.
Clip won't work round here. -
Agree that this doesn't need to be remade, but saying Washington/Travolta aren't up to the calibre of Matthau/Shaw is a bit of an insult to old Denzel - who, IMHO, is one of the best and most consistently watchable actors of his generation.
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to be an American....
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and David Shire's score is awesome - a fat slice of funk noir.
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Although HULU is unavailable in my country.
THIS FILM IS A MUST OWN ON DVD.
Good luck Tony. I wish him the best. Contrary to your statement though Harry... I will say Denzel is comparable to the aforementioned Matthau & Shaw. -
Denzel supersedes both of them. So casting isn't a problem AT ALL.
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and I STILL have not seen the original, despite my huge Jones for Robert Shaw.
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Denzel reminds me of Robert Redford; he's got that kind of charisma thing going on. He's good, but he's movie good - he's aces at convincing the audience how good Denzel is in the picture, rather than investing in the character. Shaw was an actor, not a star, and he gets lost in the character. Sure he got typecast as a baddie/antihero, but you watch the man - from A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS on he scarcely pputs a foot wrong, even when he's in shit like FORCE TEN FROM NAVARONE and AVALANCHE EXPRESS (which was cut around him, after he died mid-shoot).
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for the movie-long riff on Shaw (as Red Grant in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE) that Everett McGill does.
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for anyone who hasn't seen it. One of my favorites, and the idea of a remake, especially one with potential Domino-effected visuals, makes me want to mutilate something.
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They're fine actors - Denzel may have a great amount of skill, but he hasn't the CHARACTER of a Walter Matthau. Matthau effortlessly could portray the exasperated, yet determined working class New Yorker. He looked the part. Denzel couldn't play THAT character half as well. Instead, they'll have customized the character to Denzel, which is the pattern for the modern star driven film, instead of an actor becoming a character that they were cast for.
Travolta is an actor I have liked quite a bit, not nearly enough in recent years - but the thing I've never seen Travolta do - is play a convincing hardened man. Travolta has the look of a pampered pris that has spent his life counting money, whereas Robert Shaw is a man forged on an anvil of life. He is beaten into stronger stuff than Travolta could ever hope to portray - and when you get right to it... it comes down to faces. Matthau and Shaw had faces that captured light and shadow and sweat and blood in a way that neither Denzel or John have.
Denzel is a pretty man. Handsome and looks like a modern man that uses skin care products. -
Bravo, Harry. Today the question posed by the website's title can be answered simply, "Yes."
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I never knew Hector Elizondo was one of the hijackers. I always remember him as the hotel manager in Pretty Woman.
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That is all.
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i really do.. i never saw an episode of "it's always sunny in philidelphia" before, but i always wanted..hulu had every episode to watch. now i just started watching burn notice. once again, i love hulu. (funny though..one of the biggest arguments in the writers strike was they wanted to be paid for online viewing, to which the networks basically said.."well, there isnt really much money coming through the internet. its still a fad." i dont know for sure but it seems hulu started up and advertising right after the writers strike ended, and truthfully, i watch about 75% of my network shows on the internet now..with ads .... interesting.)
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I've been on hulu since the closed beta, and while it started out merely so-so, it has become a real powerhouse, rolling out new series and movies nearly every day. And soup74, I watch 100% of my TV online right now and (since the demise if stage6) it is all ad supported. The AMPTP were and are a bunch of lying fuckers. (That said SAG needs to fucking suck it up and take the same contract everyone else agreed to, this current stalemate is screwing up the LA economy)
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But a lot of our actors over here basically do just play themselves in movies. Unless the role calls for them to go extremely against type, that's what they're getting paid to do. I don't fault Denzel, Hollywood and the public love to see him play the cop or authority figure that's lost it all and will do everything to get it back, that's what he's good at. Now if someone would pitch him a good comedy, I'd be all over that because he has yet to do that.
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yet another example of a movie that didn't need to be remade. Sigh.
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Damn!
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Im curious,...where does the alamo draft house get all of that cool old footage that they play before the movie? Usually the shorts are related to the movie youre watching, and sometimes turns out to be the most fun part of the whole sit down.
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Hopefully the remake will inspire a cash-in reissue of the original film, only with a new, anamorphic transfer.
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Aug 08, 2008 9:31:55 PM CDT
Also, another one of the hijackers was the late Earl Hindman
by nasty in the pasty
You know, the never-seen neighbor Wilson on Home Improvement. "Hidey-ho, good neighbor...!"
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Music to rival the original? One of the coolest pieces of music I have ever heard in a movie. The entire original movie just oozes 70's era cool... They won't be able to touch the character and style of the original....
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This movie needs to be on Blu-Ray RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!!!! Harry please make some calls and get it done... If any movie deserves a blu-ray transfer it's this one..
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but thanks for taking 10 years off my age....im young again....WOOPEEE...bring on the women...and i dont care who is in the remake....nothing can top the original
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Washington-toy poodle
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and it has nothing to do with the actors...and i bet its gandolfini in the mathew role...its the subway...by 74, the subway system in nyc was a disaster...graffitied up...not all that safe...hot in the summer and freezing in the winter...so the movie played on everyones fears of going on the ny subway system...but now...its a pleasure....maybe they will make it a period piece
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I love this movie... fuck the remake.
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so sag should take it up the ass like everyone else?? hula is proving that there is significant money to be made with the new media...and the creative people should be getting a taste...not one person who worked on the movie is getting any residuals from this showing...
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This will fucking suck. That's my final word, and I used to be so eloquent...
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Aug 08, 2008 10:12:13 PM CDT
No way in hell the music will be as good as the original
by nasty in the pasty
Tony Scott has SHIT taste in film music, so we'll likely get some screeching techno garbage from Harry Gregson-Williams.
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add warnings to posts that are ONLY AVAILABLE WITHIN THE USA!! It really sucks to come to your site and get excited about a post and then -once inside the post, we discover USA ONLY VIEW BULLSHIT. Really... what the F$%#K is the internet... tubes?
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I frakkin love that site. WATCH KAGEMUSHA!!!!
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modern filmmaking owes more to Tony than Ridely. He practically invented the modern editing style with Top Gun. Ridley has simply made a career of bloated epics that don't understand where their emotional core is. They drag on and on and on long after the actual narrative has ended. Sure, Alien is blisteringly brilliant, but everything that came after is just boring. Tony, however, is still innovating. Domino is, literally, a masterpiece. It's inventive and different. Tony is making big budget art films that push the genre while Ridley is simply making condescending, rote crap that is designed to win awards. It's no different than the pandering summer blockbusters. It just looks towards a different audience.
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The new music will be just as good and appropriate for our times.
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...please google a certain program called Hotspot Shield. *cough* you never heard it from me *cough*
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should reprise his role as Rico...then I MIGHT check it out
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Nonexistent tension. Matthau played it so low-key I didn't feel what was at stake at any time. Robert Shaw saved it from being crap, and that look on his face at the end is priceless.
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You're just so used to the recent trends of melodramatic overacting, as well as overediting, overscoring (every second of the film), and worst of all, the Tony Scott school of overdirecting, that you don't know what a real suspense film is supposed to feel like. You want all peaks and no valleys, all 'splosions and special effects and no slow build and payoff. You have no fucking attention span and thus it is pearls before swine. In short, you're under the age of 30 and need some film education.
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A Paul W.S. Anderson film, Don, that will be more to your liking.
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Aug 08, 2008 11:45:49 PM CDT
I hate New York. I hate the 70's. So I'm all for a remake!
by shiftyeyeddog2
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That kicked ass. Thanks for posting this.
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Aug 08, 2008 11:56:21 PM CDT
"The new music will be just as good and appropriate for our time
by nasty in the pasty
Yeah...The Zimmer/Howard Dark Knight is EVERY BIT AS GOOD as Elfman's Batman.
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Who even remembers Elfman's Batman? Zimmer/Howard's was much better. Look at Moriarty's review of the Dark Knight, he called it one of the best scores of the year. And Vern's review. How often does Vern bother to mention the music? Hans Zimmer is here to stay. Deal with it, bitch.
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Much less as good as Mathau. Some people on this site really make me question humanity. I think it's another case of Obama-itis. Washington was in that vastly inferior remake of Manchurian Candidate and now he's going to be what I am sure is another vastly inferior remake. Is he going to play Rick Blaine in the Casablanca remake as well? Washington is good, but he isn't as good as the movies he's remaking, and that's a fact. I am willing to bet many of the tools on this TB with their highly questionable opinions are the kind of movie dummies that probably not only haven't seen TP1-2-3, but haven't seen much that pre-dates than the 90's. Coincidently -- or not-- many of these people CAN say they've seen Transformers more than 5 times. Go see some real movies, kids!
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This, The Sting and Jaws. What a fucking run for Robert Shaw. I have the one-sheet for this framed in my bedroom. Great, great '70s art for an awesome movie.
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in ROBIN AND MARIAN
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I don't like him. The only thing of his that got made that I somewhat enjoyed was Panic Room, and that was only really because of the way David Fincher directed it. It's certainly not Fincher's best, but it's Koepp's best when you compare it to The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Shia LeBoouff Swinging Around On Vines With Monkeys...Why do people keep working with him?
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i used to take that train all the time, as i was going to grad school in the bronx...it goes right through the south bronx...and in the 70s and 80s...that was fuckin scary
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and it worked beautifully. Denzel does nice work but this will be at best a good way to pass a couple of hours and then forgotten.
I'll bet New Yorkers are really looking forward to another major batch of street closures. -
In all my years of stalking bullshit . ( and there were 5 or 6 where I was no talk back member ) I have never seen a film which needed less of a remake . The movie fulfilled all of it's objectives .
A) Give us a 70's style thriller plot ( check)
B) Give Us a perfect badguy who had evrything pefected and planned to a hilt ( CHECK)
C) Give Us an opening , even the slightest , where we could feel the good guys , could make their play ( CHECK)
D) End the film in such a way , as it makes us feel that we have not as much caught a villain as much solved a crime ... ( MOTHAFUCKAN CHEKC BITCHES!!!!)
Seriously , It solves all of the 70's crime drama , to perfection . and any such re-make will only end in over bloated , constriction of plot and character.
Remake=BAD -
as drunk as I may be ( and that is drunk.) I still oppose any sot of remake of this film !! What is to be improved ? There ain't no effects that were dragges ! There are no performances that lacked !!There is plot dereliction !! It's a perfect movie !!! What , are you gonna ad a bunch of 'splosions ? That'll make it better ?!!!
There is no ending that can beat ( spoilers ahead ) Mattheau smiling as he knows the sound of the coughing bandit!!! I don't care if Brad Pitt gives a grin as he discovers the evil robber ( played by Tim Roth )It won't be good , nor the same !!!
Let it go ,says I!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let it go!!! -
I hate to beat a dead horse but.... I love Star Wars and Indy as much as the nect dweeb ( see geek) to fuck with these tentpole type deals is to be expected , but when they start fucking with our little lost souls of cinema ... I get fucking pissed !!! No more Pelham 123 !!! Give me Superman par 487 first !! What's next a Taxi Driver remake ? or maybe Salo ?
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Matthau is, in my opinion, one of the greats. Absolutely camera aware, but very natural at every moment. Matthau's face in the '70s in particular was so great for the camera, the way he looked like an unmade bed
Even when he was young, he looked at the world through those wary, half-lidded eyes, like he knew everyone else was crazy, and he was always just a few steps ahead. Funny, but absolutely able to turn on the take-no-shit bad-ass side of his persona. So for that to be the freeze-frame image (I assume everyone sees the same one in the embedded player in the article), it just makes me smile. Well-chosen. -
Was not just the grouchy old man either. In Charley Varrick, he's a full blown Tarantino-esque professional bank robber with no compunction against blowing away cops. In Failsafe though he gives a downright terrifying performance as the political scientist urging the president the burn Russia off the face of the planet with a full attack rather than prevent the mis-ordered bombers from reaching their targets. Great stuff!
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Being all 4 absolutely legends of acting. For Travolta naysayers I recommend checking in a row his range of acting: Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, Swordfish, Primary Colors, She's so lovely, Hairspray. I mean, how many Hollywood icons has he played or created? My only concern is that Tony Scott maybe isn't the right director. This one screams and yearns for Tarantino.
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This fucking sucks.As opposed to the movie which fucking rocks! Matthau is brilliant in this!
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Mr I'm so serious it hurts Washington will never get tthe brick out of his ass long enough to play this any other way than as 'opressed intelligent black man' Seriously, I've never seen him play anything that was even remotely relaxed, he gets so much cred for his acting ability but at the end of the day he's a latterday John Wayne, with one style and character in every movie.
Before someone pulls up Training Day, no, he was the same character, same shit eating grin and mannerisms as usual he just had a dumb hat and was given the bad-guy position. He still played it the same as every other movie role he's ever done from Glory on down to Inside man.
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Aug 09, 2008 4:25:09 AM CDT
They Remade New York Years Before They Remade This Film
by troutmaskreplicant
I keep coming across articles about how Rudy Giuliani made New York a safe place for yuppies, boring tourists, hipsters and Carrie from Sex And The City. And in doing so, sucked all the life out of the city while trying to make it more livable.
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any chance of providing a link for the rest of the world to watch??
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How can vee re-imageeeene vut haz come before, how can vee do sumzing zat no vun has ever heard before. Like vith Batman, the score vith lots of drums and no fahcking theme.
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complete classic...
wont be touching a remake. -
I'm sure it must be the chemistry or pairing you're on about because Denzel is widly acknowledged as one of the best screeen actors of the last 20 years.
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Fuck watching it on a computer screen - buy the DVD! The remake can only be shit. It just won't work in a modern setting. It'll be like Speed or something. YUCK!
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The people involved just don't get me excited anymore. Tony Scott is still so obsessed with acid-flash photography that I doubt we'll ever again see the filmmaker who gave us movies like The Last Boyscout and Crimson Tide. I can't stand Travolta anymore. We all thought it was so cool to see him play the baddie in Broken Arrow and Face-off, but then he just wouldn't stop doing it. Swordfish? Punisher? What the fuck? Denzel still manages to impress me. His performance in American Gangster was the one great thing about that movie. Anyway, none of these elements can compare to the original Pelham, a film I truly love and cherish. Sorry, not interested.
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I saw this movie around the same time that Reservoir Dogs came out, after reading that Tarantino had taken the name thing in some article. I was greatly impressed.
The last shot of Matthau looking back through the door is one of my favorite movie shots ever. -
The film and everything connected (incl. the music) is very much overrated. It's still quite entertaining, but not very dramatic, never really suspenseful and exciting, not skillfully plotted in many areas. So I'm with Mr_Saxon: I'm looking forward to the remake. Let's hope they'll make it better this time.
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Almost every remake has one right?
So which dumb black artist is going to play the streetsmart comedy interest? -
Denzel too tall. Unless they is having Travolta as the Matthau character and Denzel as the baddy that would be better but not much Anyway they already did this a million times with these actors in stuff from Swordfishes to Inside man and Tony Scott is shit and shaky so what's the point!?
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RIP, indeed. The man definitely was funny.
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Fuck you, Merrick. Give me a fucking THEME to hold onto. One reason out of many I loved Inside Man was Terrence Blanchard's AWESOME jazz/funk score, which was basically a modern take on Shire's Pelham music. You're probably the asshole from that test screening of Troy who got Gabriel Yared's GORGEOUS score tossed out because it was "Too old-fashioned!"
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Nothing wrong with it - but he is simply not in Denzel's class. If you think Walter (who btw was in another gritty cop drama around the same time called "The Laughing Policeman" - nowhere near the classic Pelham but worth checking it out)is Mr Washington's equal, you need to rewatch Malcolm X.
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The thing most people getting at regarding these two actors is, Matthau was one of the quintisential "working-class" actors, while Washington is a grade-A Movie Star. Nothing wrong with that...Washington is a great actor. But Matthau was completely convincing as a schlubby, clock-punching normal person, while it's difficult to think of Washington that way. One of the pleasures of the original Pelham is how it butted Robert Shaw's cultured, erudite villain against Matthau's scruffy ordinary Joe. Now, with Denzel, that's going to be lost.
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Taken the pelham 123? You mean the 6 train? No one refers to the trains as these call signs but the dispatchers. For people riding the train, there is no pelham 123, or pelham 136 for that matter, just the 6 train. I doubt you rode "the pelham 123" all the time, bacci40.
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a large role in making that movie work. The grit, crime, graffiti, mom and pop shops, big gas guzzling American cars, boom boxes, gangs, prostitutes, the New Yorker attitude, the way people spoke, the subway people were afraid to ride etc vs what NY has become which is pseudo-sophisticates walking out of Starbucks with their Organic African Blend Grandes absorbed in their iPod and Blackberries on their way to some pseudo-fancy bistro where they can dine on food that needs a three line description followed by an explaination from the waiter (only to find out it's just spaghetti with meat sauce) because that's what the Food Network says food should be. And in contrast to the 1M ransom in the movie, people living in the City now, making eight figure salaries are finding it hard to make ends meet. There was good reason to set the whole thing in NY back then.
Also adding to what others have mentioned about Matthau, he looked and carried himself as a normal, working class New Yorker but there was an intelligence behind his disheveled exterior that made him a worthy adversary to Shaw. How he deals with the crisis and interacts with Mr. Blue is classic work (though not perfect). As good as Denzel is, he's going to have a tough time matching the work of Matthau that many of us have set in our minds. -
And Pelham is one of the best films of the 70's period. But you're way off about Denzel, Harry. He's the best actor working today. And saying that he's not Mathau is simply rubbish.
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Has never run since this film came out. Thats as a direct result.
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I'll say it again for you challenged people out there: MATHAU IS A BETTER ACTOR THAN WASHINGTON. He has more range and more every-man strengths. Washington plays a lot of the same types of characters; righteous men with flaws, but not unforgivable flaws. And he plays them too similarly And you're just as delusional if you think this remake is both a good idea and will be anywhere close to the original. I am not predicting the future but going by the trend of remake qualities, as well as how untoppable the original is.
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It's so gratifying about film history that even with a 120-deep Netflix queue and a screenwriting degree, that fun this simple was at my fingertips. Thanks for putting it up, guys... and (for once) thanks to Hulu for putting something truly awesome out there.
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the 6 goes to the east side...there was the 1,2, 3 that goes to the west side...the numbers changed depending on the route...but the trains that ran as either the 1,2 or 3 were all the same...i lived in pelham pkwy and used to take the 1 or 2 into the city...sorry if i wasnt clear...oh, and the 6 was the clean train...the 1 or 2's were always nasty
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I'm not usually defensive about ham-handed "re-imaginings" of great films, but this is one time I actually want to protect a title from its remake. I can't help but think that's what was on Harry's mind, too, and I applaud the effort. Despite the atrocious post just above mine, Pelham IS a great movie, and I'd urge anyone who hasn't seen it to do so. One last thought, or rather, prediction. This remake will lack all of the street-level realism and character nuance of the original. One reason? Political correctness. One of my favorite lines in the film is Matthau's, after he hears Robert Shaw's voice on the two-way and says to his comrades: "He speaks with an English accent...could be a fruitcake." Try writing that line of dialogue today.
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who along with Gordon Willis, Vilmos Zsigmond and Haskell Wexler, were the gods of '70s cinematography.
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There are so many things wrong with your post I would waste half my life going over them. So I'll just hit some highlights:
John Lennon? Of the Beatles? What the fuck does he have to do with this movie, or Walter Mathau? The truth is, that the 70's saw not only some of the best actors of our time, but the best performances. Washington would be considered average next to people like Pacino, Scheider, Hackman, and many others. With Hollywood more focused on looks and glamour than actual acting talent nowadays, we see fewer truly great performances than we did decades ago. FACT. Your sad attempt to invalidate opinions by accusing people of not seeing the movie is laughable. And pathetic. It IS beyond being remade just as Manchurian Candidate, another useless remake where Washington still can't hold a candle next to the original, was. Some movies are so dug in to the time period that to transplant them to modern times nearly makes the whole endeavor pointless right off the bat. It's called 'DOG DAY AFTERNOON'. For a post that you claim is "more factual", you sure do make some glaring errors. Try again. -
the 123 does not refer to the 2/3 express or 1/9 (now just 1) local that runs on the west side. It refers to the train that left Pelham Bay Park at 1:23, that's how the call signs for individual trains where given, and that is what the title refers to. Trust me, it's a 6 train -- when they escape out of the grates, if I'm not mistaken, they're right by Union Square.
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poor dude...
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"Great director - one of the best in the business." Experiment 626, let's not forget that this man also gave us a little travesty of a film called "Jaws: The Revenge". Pelham was masterfully directed but because of that "other film" I mentioned, he cannot be classified as a great director.
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Go. Find. Watch.
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Inside Man pretended it was a badass seventies New York crime movie like Straight Time or Dog Day Afternoon until an hour into it when it became clear that it was a pussy-ass-no-body-count-no-danger-no-balls heist flick a la Ocean's 11. Pelham is dangerous, it is seventies, it is scary. Inside Man is for children with a high-wattage Nite Lite in their bedroom.
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is play a convincing hardened man Well ain't it cool.
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That of Morris Buttermaker in the Bad News Bears?
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Suck much.
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of excitement for the silver screen. Much respect towards the original as I loved it myself, Matthau RIP. Teaming up yet again with the familiar ZeL [Washington] it's going to be another sick action/thriller/drama. People keep harping on remakes... I say it's inevitable. I'm prepping a second pair of pants for this release... what better a team than Scott/ZeL/Gregson-Williams. Are you kidding? Percussive/electronic downbeat/melodic heavy composition blaring over the methodically breathtaking Denzel with top gunner Tony Scotter at the helm? Mr. Man of Fire I'm ready for another visual bonecrushing experience. I'm stoked about any Scott movie; both brothers.
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Above post is a PLANT!
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Actually, the post two up from that one was the PLANT!
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...and plugs something else?
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Anyone with a Netflix account is better off watching it from their "Watch Now" service. The quality is a lot better and there are no commercials.
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Flip63hole - "HULU rocks"? You're joking, right? Small image on a small computer screen (which can't be seen outside the US anyway) and with commercials added. I'll stick to DVDs and DVD season sets (which have no commercial breaks and no screen clutter) on my large-screen TV, thank you.
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Given movies are a universal interest, maybe it would be an idea to stop having links which won't work outside the US borders, especially given that the US represents only a small fraction of the world's population. It would help cut down on the annoying frustration.
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Maybe it's just surface stuff (British ringleader taking hostages with codenamed associates vs. NYC cops scrambling to meet demands with a number of darkly funny lines throughout), but when I saw INSIDE MAN, I couldn't help but notice the similiarities...and the film was all the more enjoyable for them.
Even with the talent involved, if you think that this fake-PELHAM is gonna evoke the original better than INSIDE MAN, I have a bridge to sell you. -
I think it's a retarded idea. I'm talking about how the original Pelham is badass and Inside Man is weak and lame. Though certain plot similarities may exist, the handling of the material is vastly different. One is handled like the solid badass seventies flick it is and the other pretends to be dangerous for an hour and then slips into safe, family movie garbage territory.
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Matthau was as much of a "star actor" as Denzel, except for the fact that Matthau was ugly and Denzel isn't.
Seriously, watch the majority of of Matthau's films. He's mostly playing a slight variation of his screen persona, which is "Walter Matthau", the sardonic everyman. People try to use that as a knock against Denzel (ie, he's always playing "Denzel"), but he's got nothing on Matthau in that regard. I never saw Matthau completely become another person in the same way Washington transformed into Malcolm X and Steve Biko in Cry Freedom. Don't get me wrong, Matthau is great. But Washington is better, and always will be.
I'm also surprised Harry made that crack about Denzel being "pretty" (maybe Harry's insecurities about his own looks are showing). Washington's looks (unlike 99% of his peers) have never been a hinderance to him being believable in role. He's got truthfulness, gravitas and conviction going for him.
And has Harry even seen the pictures of Denzel in the Pelham role? He looks like shit. Completely unlike his normally "pretty" self. His hair is gray, he's paunchy at at least 20 pounds overweight and is wearing a pair of ridiculously nerdy spectacles. Denzel has basically transformed himself into a stockier version of Spike Lee for this role. He's made himself look as ordinary as humanly possible, and I really doubt it'll stretch him terribly to play to play a working schmuck New Yorker. -
Aug 10, 2008 4:21:12 PM CDT
The new music will be just as good and appropriate for our time
by m_prevette
BULLSHIT. It'll be a wildly inappropriate score, wall to wall, and will include Bourne style percussion and the damned Wailing Woman. Music from most of Tony Scott's films have been crap, and this probably won't be the exception. Someone mentioned "score it like TDK" ...ummm...you mean endless drones, synth pads, and the same Zimmer style he falls back on for action pics? James Netwon Howard should have scored TDK BY HIMSELF ...we'd have gotten a great, dark, epic orchestral score. But no, we instead have a score that sounds like any number of Media Ventures/Remote Control scores...and I LIKE Zimmer...he's capable of some great writing, but - TDK was a play-it-safe score. But most likely that was more to do with Nolan, who apparently dislikes an actual thematic score, his films mostly have atmospheric drone type music.
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You're absolutely right re the train. It's the 6 out of Pelham Bay. I'm sitting close enough to that sucker right now to hear it roll into the station. I'd rather deal with Robert Shaw than some of the nuts who ride that line now.
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Have you ever read the book of THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE, TWO, THREE, John Godey's acclaimed bestseller? In the original novel, the Matthau character was a black man. Personally, I'm glad there will be a new take on PELHAM. There's room in the world for another version, one that's closer to the gripping and insightful novel. Denzel Washington is one of the greatest film actors in the world and the last time he worked with Tony Scott (MAN ON FIRE), he gave one of his very best performances.
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was Deja Vu, and the result was less than spectacular.
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They should have just made a sequel to that film rather than put Denzel and Travolta into the shoes of actors they absolutely cannot replace.
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Hey, thanks for the link.
Just watched it (those ads every 10 minutes were a bit annoying). Didn't expect anything, and thank god I didn't... Just as bad as I thought it would be.
First of all. Awful score.
Then, like most actors in that time... Bad, bad, bad.
"Denzel Washington and John Travolta... are no Walter Matthau or Robert Shaw"
Ya? True, they're real good actors.
Can't wait to see Mr Travolta as bad guy again (although it would be even cooler to have Denzel as baddie again).
Anyway. So can't wait for Scott's version.
I can't wait for any new film by Tony Scott, since he's the most unique filmmaker of our time. At least if he stays with his style (which he unfortunately didn't with Deja Vu).
So, I hope it will have Domino quality (art masterpiece).
Story was good, so now we need a great film for that story by Scott.
Can't wait.
Oh and, yeah. This movie was fucking hilarious in some parts. So pathetic.. Ahaha, the end was the best. Just how Matthau looked, priceless (bad)! Ahahaha. -
You are right. I forgot about DEJA VU. Actually, Tony Scott is sort of hit and miss, isn't he? But when he's on, he's really on.
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