Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here.

The not-so-big secret about the 1974 version of THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE (which was the actual title) was that the heist itself was just an excuse to get to know some really interesting and very human characters on both sides of the crime equation. Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw would have been nearly as interesting playing two people checking out library books as they were as a transit cop and subway hostage taker, respectively. Watching that film today, the stakes seem ludicrously low and New York is a very different place.

The 2009 edition of PELHAM 1 2 3 is a beast of a different nature, but director Tony Scott is wise enough to at least leave the fundamentals the same as he navigates Brian Helgeland's far more dense screenplay. The focus is still on characters, even if the characters aren't nearly as compelling as they were 35 years ago. Much has been updated to this story of group of angry New Yorkers who hijack a subway car filled with passengers and demand a massive sum of money in one hour before they start killing hostages, and for the most part I didn't mind the changes. The head of the criminals, Ryder (played by John Travolta), has motivations behind his actions that seem solid. The film also acknowledges the role that modern telecommunications would play in such an incident--yes, in some cities, you can get a wireless signal in the subway. Above ground is an entirely different story...

Director Scott's frequent collaborator Denzel Washington is the best thing in the film as Walter Garber, which is good since he pulls us through his journey as the seemingly hapless dispatcher who becomes Ryder's main point of contact. Washington is playing older and a bit more skittish than he usually does, and it suits the character beautifully as a man whose recent history in the New York Transit Authority is under major scrutiny. As much as his superiors would love to pull him off the line with this dangerous criminal, Ryder senses a kindred spirit he can manipulate when he needs to. Also on hand in the film is John Turturro as a hostage negotiator who is feeding Walter lines to tell Ryder and prepping him for each new encounter. Turturro and Washington, two veterans who came up in the Spike Lee School of Filmmaking, have a great chemistry and their conversations are the highlights of the film. James Gandolfini plays New York's mayor, who is ridiculously hands-on in this case. And of course we have Luis Guzman as a disgruntled subway engineer who assists Ryder in his evil ways. You can never have too much Guzman in a movie, period.

You may think at this point that I'm ready to hand over my whole-hearted recommendation to THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3, but not so fast. There's one problem, and it's a doozy: John Travolta is ridiculous in this movie. I don't just mean a little nutzo or eccentric; he's genuinely awful in this role. I'm not sure which is more distracting, his bloated face, his pencil-thin facial hair, the way his voice goes into an upper register whenever he get mad and yells things like "Motherfucker!" You will more than likely laugh all the way through this movie thanks to Travolta's soul-crushing work. He did the same thing in the Thomas Jane PUNISHER movie, and I hope once and for all no one ever hires him to play an over-the-top villain again. He's so unbelievably unconvincing it boggles the mind. And he goes a long way toward killing any enthusiasm I had for this movie.

For reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, the film becomes less interesting when the action moves aboveground. I guess the novelty of having all of the action set either on a lone railcar or an otherwise unexciting dispatch headquarters was kind of interesting, but once the chase sees daylight, I got bored. Still, Washington does a workman's job to keep certain aspects of this film very interesting. I contend that the actor does some of his best and most intense work with Scott behind the camera, with films like CRIMSON TIDE, MAN ON FIRE, and DEJA VU. In the character of Walter, Washington braids bits of confidence, frailty, fear and desperation. In lesser hands, these subtleties would have been lost. But Washington knows how to weave these various traits in and out of each other, creating a three-dimensional character amid a sea of lesser-developed ones. With the exception of one great performance, THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 is decidedly average. I don't really remember a moment where I felt Walter's life was in danger, nor did I really care about the fate of Ryder or the passengers. The thriller aspects to the film are flatlined, and the chase aspects are standard-issue stuff. There's better out there, folks. Try something a little more adventurous and original on for size.

-- Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com