Cast:  Denzel Washington (Walter Garber) and John Travolta (Ryder)

The Taking of the Pelham 123 is Tony Scott’s take on the original 1974 crime thriller. Ryder leads a gang of armed men, and hijacks a train on the New York subway. He holds passengers hostage and demands a $10 million ransom from the city with a one hour deadline.
Garber has been demoted and works as a dispatcher for the subway, while being under investigation for accepting bribery.
The two collide when Ryder hijacks one of Garber’s trains. His whole day is thrown into chaos, but Garber uses his knowledge of the subway system to try and outwit the enemy and save the hostages

Washington and Travolta both play ill-served members of society and we feel at times that they may actually have something in common and whether they should actually be rooting for the same cause.
Travolta plays an almost believable hard ass; shooting hostages like a psychopath, and throwing tantrums whilst tapping into the stock market figures on his laptop.
Washington (who was asked to gain weight for the role), though playing an unexciting hero, plays Garber with his natural charisma. The plot eventually allows him to leave the secure surrounding of his office and into some mild action; train driving, pulling a gun, and barely running in the chase scenes.
Washington and Travolta are given overly complicated back stories that tend to take the audience away from the matter at hand and you start wondering about things such as the magical broadband connection underground.
 

Verdict:
Remakes of much loved classics are becoming more worrying in Hollywood, but Travolta plays a great villain, and the audience are able to view an intense cat-and-mouse chase between the film’s two main characters.

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