(WXYZ) - The movie remake is an interesting breed of cat. Essentially, at least the way I understand it, you're taking an established work made years ago (most of the time a successful work) and either trying to modernize it, improve on it, or ride on its reputation for a nice payday. There have been some good remakes--
You've Got Mail was originally
The Shop Around the Corner,
His Girl Friday was a remake of
The Front Page, and
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) was redone 27 years later as
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) and then 22 years later as
The Bounty (1984).
But remakes don't always work. Case in point:
Psycho.
Here you've already got arguably the greatest horror movie of all time, made in 1960 in black and white and still scaring the bejesus out of viewers. Then, someone like director Gus Van Sant comes along 38 years later and releases a shot-for-shot remake of the Hitchcock horror classic, this time in color. It's a film that's become known as a noble experiment by Van Sant, but one that didn't work with audiences and, ultimately, the box office.
So, sometimes remakes work, and sometimes they don't. This brings us to
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.
WATCH THE PREVIEW IN THE BOX BELOW
The original
Pelham has been a favorite of mine for years. Starring Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw as adversaries playing a cat-and-mouse game over a $1 millon dollar ransom and the lives of the passengers on the hijacked subway train, the movie is an exciting, tense, gritty, and, at times, amusing look at New York City, circa 1974.
In this new version of
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Denzel Washington plays the Matthau role as New York City subway dispatcher Walter Garber, whose ordinary day is thrown into chaos by an audacious crime. John Travolta takes on the Shaw role as Ryder, the criminal mastermind who, as leader of a highly-armed gang of four, threatens to execute the train's passengers unless a large ransom is paid within one hour. As the tension mounts beneath his feet, Garber employs his vast knowledge of the subway system in a battle to outwit Ryder and save the hostages.
Washington makes his fourth collaboration with director Tony Scott. As New York City subway dispatcher Garber, Washington maintains the calm in the middle of Scott’s storm, even as the director can’t resist annoying camera angles around his star, cutting to several different shots to jazz up what is essentially a movie about a conversation between Garber and Ryder (Travolta). Scott does his best to turn this back-and-forth into an action movie, adding in gunfights, car chases and a climactic showdown, but all it does is distract from a simple, economical story.
The other problem is Travolta. He seems to have lost all bearing as an actor (not exactly news, really) and has turned into an uncured ham, starting with his absurd handlebar mustache and thug-life tattoos, and running all the way through his final moments, daring Washington’s nebbishy office worker to gun him down in broad daylight. His Ryder characterization is a silly joke, not sinister.
Brian Helgeland’s script departs pretty wildly from the original, as Washington attempts to stall for time while Travolta delivers one crazed monologue after another, shooting people whenever things start to get boring.
James Gandolfini is spot-on as the mayor, and he's probably the one performer who wouldn’t be out of place in the original
Pelham. He's an angry politician counting the days until the end of his single term, disgraced by a sex scandal and a secret loathing of the Yankees. And, as we learned so well in
The Sopranos, nobody gets aggravated better than James Gandolfini. The man speaks volumes just by rolling his eyes.
Technically, the film is solid, with some nice, dank location atmosphere and a well staged car pile-up. Harry Gregson-Williams’ driving score helps as an effective pacing mechanism.
But, when it comes to remakes, I've got to defer to the original, with Matthau's brilliantly underplayed performance, Shaw's sinister bad guy (his next movie,
Jaws, would make him a superstar), and all the delightful character actors sprinkled throughout the film, like Jerry Stiller, Dick O'Neil, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizando and Doris Roberts.
I suggest you venture out to the video store and rent the original and let this new version of
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 just ride on by.
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3Rated: R
Running Time: 106 minutes
Pete Misiak is an award-winning news anchor and reporter at WJR-AM 760 and is also a member of WXYZ.com's Web Team. A former Big Band singer with Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians, Pete earned membership into Actors' Equity Association in 1982 and has appeared in over 60 productions as an actor and performer.
