The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 Tagged Articles at Cinematical

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Here's my problem with the picture: a furiously-filmed chase through the streets of Paris should be spectacular and thrilling. Instead, it's incoherent, routine, even disappointing. Director Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, Van Helsing) turns in another by-the-numbers action spectacle, this time starring Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Marlon Wayans, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. There are better ways to waste your time and money. Skip it. Also on Blu-ray.

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The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Tony Scott's remake is a higher-grade disappointment, coming achingly close to delivering an unqualified success. Derailed by John Travolta's unrepentant scenery-chewing, which goes far beyond the bounds of bad taste, and an unhealthy preoccupation with explaining everything, the film motors along reasonably well, fashioning a paranoid tale of post-9/11 terror and ticking time bomb suspense. Denzel Washington is eminently watchable, and James Gandolfini has a good turn as the Mayor of NYC. Recommended with reservations. Rent it. Also on Blu-ray.

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I Love You, Beth Cooper
As I wrote in my review, Larry Doyle's very funny book has been transformed into a dreadfully boring movie. Hayden Panettiere and Paul Rust are miscast as a rule-breaking dream girl and the boy who loves her from afar, respectively. The spend a night together that seems endless. Chris Columbus directed, without distinction. Skip it. Also on Blu-ray.

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Also out: Aliens in the Attic.

Indies on DVD, more Blu-ray picks, and Collector's Corner -- after the jump!

The Hangover is officially the summer's biggest breakout hit. Its closest analogue is Wedding Crashers, which, four summers ago, was carried by positive word-of-mouth to a final gross nearly seven times its opening weekend. The Hangover has bigger raw numbers, but its second weekend drop -- 25% -- is comparable. For a film that opened to $45 million, and without any sort of holiday boost, that's pretty remarkable. It will have some competition next weekend in the form of Year One, but it may not matter much; its word-of-mouth appears to be the stuff that dreams are made of.

Pixar's Up is also going gangbusters in second place. It is now running a mere $4 million behind Pixar box office champion Finding Nemo. At this point it's anybody's game.

The weekend's two wide openers -- The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and Imagine That Imagine That opened pretty much to expectations. Pelham did a respectable $25 million, which is pretty close to previous Denzel Washington-Tony Scott collaborations (Man on Fire and Deja Vu). And Imagine That's $5.7 million pretty much precisely mirrors the opening of Eddie Murphy's Meet Dave this time next year. Murphy really needs to do something to shake things up a bit.

The full top 10 after the jump.

I'm not certain when, exactly, my long-time fascination with trains was born, but it probably started the first time I walked through Union Station in Los Angeles, a cathedral dedicated to mass transit that opened in 1939. Opportunities to ride the rails were few and far between, so I treasured any chance to experience a train trip vicariously through the movies. Eventually I moved to New York and, still later, visited Europe, banking thousands of hours on all manner of subways and trains. Still, I've never had a personal train trip as thrilling as those I've enjoyed at the movies. With Tony Scott's The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 racing into theaters tomorrow, let's honor a few of the films that have provided terrific train thrills of the cinematic variety.

1. Runaway Train
The other movies on this list feature excellent scenes set on or around trains or subways (see also "Honorable Mention" and "Sensational Subway Scenes" after the jump) but Andrei Konchalovsky's thriller, based on a screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, spends the majority of its running time on a train speeding through the bitterly cold, snowy winter landscapes of Alaska. Jon Voight and Eric Robert are two hardened convicts who've broken out of prison and, by chance, happen upon the just-departing train. When the engineer suffers a heart attack, the cons are at the controls of an out-of-control beast they cannot hope to master.

2. Spider-Man 2
I'll dance around needless spoilers by saying there is a coda to the runaway train scene that caught me unaware, filled with grace and humanity. That elevates a very good, thrilling, fast-paced suspense sequence involving helpless passengers and the heroic, masked Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) as he fights Doc Ock (Alfred Molina).

Nausea, cotton mouth, and a splitting headache took everyone by surprise last weekend as The Hangover took the number one spot, just barely outdoing Up in its second week. Land of the Lost had a lackluster opening weekend, scoring a distant third place. My Life in Ruins took ninth place with a $3.2 million take. Here's the top five:

1. The Hangover: $44.9 million
2. Up: $44.1 million
3. Land of the Lost: $18.8 million
4. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian: $14.6 million
5. Star Trek: $8.3 million

Two new flicks this week:

Imagine That
What's It All About: A comedy starring Eddie Murphy as a financial executive who salvages his career with advice from his daughter's imaginary friends.
Why It Might Do Well: I just can't imagine that.
Why It Might Not Do Well: It's no secret that, unless he's voicing an irritating yet amusing donkey, Murphy is not the box office draw he once was. His last feature Meet Dave opened with a mere $5.2 million. It doesn't help that the plot about a father who will no doubt discover the value of family over work has become a kids' movie cliche.
Number of Theaters: 2,800
Prediction: $9 million

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
What's It All About: Denzel Washington plays a New York City subway dispatcher and John Travolta plays the leader of a ruthless group of criminals who are holding a subway car full of passengers for a hefty ransom.
Why It Might Do Well: The two leads are the big draw here.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Based on twelve reviews Rottentomatoes.com is giving this only 42% and for the most part remakes leave a bad taste in my mouth.
Number of Theaters: 3,000
Prediction: $26 million