A fine way to start off the summer season
Written: Jun 17 '09 (Updated Jun 17 '09)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Bang For The Buck |
 |
|
|
Pros: Intense, sharp editing, solid script
Cons: Camera work and style are a bit overused at times
The Bottom Line: Smarter than you might expect and relavent its easily worth the money.
|
|
|
| musicc's Full Review: The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 |
I don't go to the movies too often these days what with ticket prices being over priced and needing money for gas but since school ended last week and graduation money pouring in I plan on seeing a lot more movies this summer. The Taking Of The Pellham 1 2 3 is a great way to start off the summer season. Its frantic, fast paced, and never lets up for a moment. It is a serious movie but there is a sense of fun throughout the movie and it feels like one wild ride.
Its another normal day at work for Walter Garber as he oversees the train routes making sure nothing goes wrong. Things go as normal until several men hijack one of the trains and take hostages. The leader of the hijackers is a man of the name of Ryder, he talks on one end of the radio to the other where Garber is located. He makes demands asking for ten million dollars within the hour or people will start dying. By the time the police are involved Ryder doesn't want to talk to anyone else as he proves it by killing the conductor. As Ryder talks to Garber more and more, secrets are revealed and people aren't as they seem as Ryder's plan starts to unravel.
Good heist movies are hard to come by these days as for whatever reason just don't get made too often. There's Oceans 11 but not a whole lot of other films fill the genre. This movie reminded me of Inside Man and Phone Booth. Inside Man because it is a heist film and its plot turns into something greater than itself and Phone Booth for its short setting and intensity. The end result is something great it is a fun movie to watch with a lot of action and fast paced scenes that bounce off each other seamlessly. Its quite a ride and one thats worth it.
Tony Scott is a good film maker although not nearly as consistent or good as his brother Ridley he has a good track record and gets better with each film. His style of film making is very distinct if you look at his films (Deja Vu, Man on Fire) and while it can get overused at times it still remains interesting and fun to watch. The camera work also gets a bit too much in some scenes. The constant rotating and jerking around can get dizzying at times but its never gets near as bad as the Bourne movies, and I guess it just wouldn't be a Tony Scott film without it. However, if you didn't like his previous ones chances are you wont like this one. One of the other possible flaws in the movie are the unnecessary explosions and car crashes. They don't exactly hurt the movie but don't really serve a purpose other than the fact that Tony Scott likes to watch things blow up, or maybe he just had some leftover budget and decided to blow some stuff up. But like I said they don't really hurt the movie but they look nice and its all good summer fun.
Denzel Washington comes out with a great performance here and he is a great actor. He also has done well in his previous Tony Scott films and he does a fine job again. However John Travolta practically steals the show as the overblown villain. At first he seems like nothing more than a two dimensional bad guy who just wants money. As the film progresses we learn more about him and we understand about him and start to see it through his eyes. He is a very interesting character and John Travolta does an excellent job here and feels like a real person. The rest of the cast doesn't exactly do much but are still important to the film. John Turturro does a great job as a FBI hostage negotiator and James Gandolfini plays the mayor and his performance is no less than awesome.
The Taking of the Pellham 1 2 3 turns out to be a great way to start off the summer season. It is a lot of fun and is very intense without a moment to spare. Its loud, frantic, and never stops until the end. It has a short time span and while it doesn't have a lot of plot the story and characters are what make the movie. And while there are some explosions and noises most of the action and suspense takes place between the conversations of Garber and Ryder. While I have not seen the original I'm basing this movie on what I saw and frankly I thought it was pretty good. It has a solid script that leaves all loose ends tied up and everything resolved nicely. I can't fault it on too much and for what it was it was very enjoyable. I'm sure there are better films coming out during the summer and I'm looking forward to a lot of films but this was a great way to start off the summer movie season and certainly one that was worth its ticket price.
4.5 stars rounded down
Cast
Denzel Washington - Walter Garber
John Travolta - Ryder
John Turturro - Camonetti
James Gandolfini - Mayor
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Action Movie
Viewing Method: Studio Screening/Premiere
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Nothing
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
musicc
|
|
Member: Max Mosher
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
Reviews written: 273
Trusted by: 39 members
About Me:
Going to film school in Canada, lots of fun, trying to keep up with Epinions.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.