Film: Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

STARRING: Denzel Washington (Inside Man); John Travolta (Swordfish); John Turturro (Transformers)
DIRECTOR: Tony Scott (Man on Fire, Domino, Spy Game)
WRITER: Brian Helgeland (LA Confidential, Man on Fire, Payback)
PLOT: A New York subway dispatcher has to negotiate with a terrorist who has taken over one of the subway cars.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS
4 Pelham is an okay flick but was reminiscent of Speed but without all the action from the good guy. The two leads are great on the phone together but things veer way off course when they get off the subway. Same problem Speed had.
4 Tony Scott has a style all his own. Lots of epileptic camera movement and titles appearing on the screen periodically. Sometimes it works; sometimes it gives me a headache. Man on Fire it worked. Domino = headache. This film is pretty much 50/50.
4 I hate it when characters are stupid for the sake of the plot. There is a point where just one passenger needs to contact the dispatcher to stop a train but instead they all just panic. Lazy storytelling. I expect a bit more from Brian Helgeland.
4 I liked the casting of James Gandolfini as the mayor. It suited him. Some nice Giuliani jokes too. Also glad to see John Turturro restrain himself as the negotiator. After his awful Transformers performance, it’s nice to see him being normal.
4 The mouth on Travolta’s character was unnecessary. He says motherf*****r way too much to be taken seriously.

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