TheTakingOfPelhamOneTwoThree Tagged Articles at Cinematical

"How the hell can you run a goddamn railroad without swearing?"
-The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

"I got 99 problems, and a bitch ain't one."
-The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)

About as loud as Joseph Sargent's original was lean, Tony Scott's take on The Taking of Pelham 123 is more indebted to his name than its own, all restless shots and relentless cuts, ticking clocks and roving maps, a stream of shouting and shooting and speed-ramping and slow-motion and all that jazz. The conversations are cranked up, and the confrontations are amped up, but to what end? Scott whips out the familiar frame-blurring techniques that have ostensibly served him well in the past, but his flair tends to instead rob a crackerjack crime thriller of an inherent momentum that has served it quite well over the span of almost four decades.

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).

It's not far to assume that all remakes will disappoint by default. I've come to learn that we get one Dawn of the Dead '04 for every ten of Prom Night '08, but more importantly, I've learned to be a bit more grateful for those that do work, because they are no less ours to enjoy. However, judging by the new trailer over at Yahoo! Movies for Tony Scott's take on The Taking of Pelham 123, that approach cannot eliminate skepticism entirely, which is what this trailer filled me with, entirely.

Hiring the more spastic Scott sibling to helm a movie that mostly takes place on a subway car held hostage doesn't seem right, which is why this piece is filled with roaming cameras as a truck crashes into a car, Denzel Washington clashes with John Travolta, a motorcycle crashes into a car, Denzel's facial hair clashes with Travolta's facial hair, so on, so forth...

And the original (Walter Matthau vs. Robert Shaw! And that theme!) and its dry wit appear to have instead been reduced to that one line about milk and a climax likely more comparable to Speed than Pelham '74. But hey, I can't say for sure until I actually see more than two minutes of the thing, and having been surprised by how much I enjoyed Scott and Washington's Deja Vu after sitting through its trailers, I'll try and bite my tongue until June 12th.

(On the flip side: if you have 105 minutes to spare, I may be able to help you see things my way...)

So Erik-with-a-k covered the coming comedies of 2009, Scott was all over the horror picks (though his inclusion of Race to Witch Mountain still boggles my mind), Eric-with-a-c nabbed the family-friendly fare, and Elisabeth went over the geek fodder that awaits. But while I respect their calendar years and made-up math alike, I've opted to divide my list of 2009's action and adventure flicks into four categories: Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About, Action Flicks I Couldn't Care Less About, Action Flicks That I Hope Surprise Me, and Those Which Fell In Between. Enjoy!

Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About: First and foremost -- Watchmen (March 6th). It's one hell of a graphic novel and looks to be one hell of an adaptation (with or without the Giant Blank), but the only problem is it may not hit theaters on time if 20th Century Fox has anything to say about it. Both Fox and Warner Brothers are fighting over who actually owns the rights, and if a judge favors Fox comes January 20th (when the court date is set), we're looking at a delayed release and a whole ton of angry fans. Then there's Public Enemies (July 1st), which has me sold on not the subject matter, but sheer pedigree: Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp and Christian Bale as '30s gangsters. (It doesn't hurt that the earliest word ranges from damn good to great.) On the skimpier side, I can only hope that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 17th) streamlines its source material as the previous one had, and I can only hope that Crank 2: High Voltage (April 17th) lives up/down to the depravity of its predecessor. There's one last action movie that I couldn't care more about because, well, I've already seen a version of it. The international cut of Taken (January 30th, though reportedly opening with some R-dodging trims) is about as brisk and butt-kicking as one might hope out of a man-on-a-mission kidnapping thriller, and if you disagree, I'll send Liam Neeson to change your mind.

Gallery: Watchmen

When putting together a remake, the powers that be usually find similar actors to fill the roles once immortalized by someone else. But sometimes, we get people entirely different. As we have heard, there's a remake of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three coming our way, titled The Taking of Pelham 123. Instead of Walter Matthau, we're getting a whole different type of actor -- Denzel Washington, and now Just Jared is sharing a peek at the man in action.

123 focuses on some armed, color-named gang members who hijack a subway car in New York City and take the train hostage in hopes of collecting a sweet ransom. Lt. Zachary Garber (Washington) has to make it all happen. Methinks things aren't going too well for Z in this scene.

I like Denzel and all, and I'm sure that he'll be great, but this isn't exactly new territory for him, and seeing this, I just want me some Walter Matthau. If you're feeling the same way, head through the jump.

As Inside Man opens, a man stares into the camera in a too-small room. He speaks in clear, clipped tones. "My name is Dalton Russell. Pay strict attention to what I say because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself." And bang – as Clive Owen looks out from the screen, director Spike Lee sets the hook for one of the most satisfying pieces of grown-up entertainment big Hollywood's given us in a long time. Both Lee and his anti-hero spend the next 128 minutes playing us, and by the time they're done, we're glad they did. 

Four painters show up at a bank in Manhattan's financial district. The bank doesn't really look like it needs painting, but that's okay; they're actually there to rob the place. They take out the surveillance cameras, round up the staff and customers and get everything under tight control in an eye blink. Then they tell the cops what they've done … and then they're in no hurry at all. NYPD Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) catches the case – and Frazier needs to put a win up on the board, since $140,000 in cash went missing from one of his busts recently and Internal Affairs is sniffing around. Frazier and his partner Mitchell (Chiwitel Ejiofor) head over to the scene, Frazier takes command of the police presence from Capt. Darius (Willem Dafoe) ... and soon comes to realize that the mystery men inside the bank are really calling all the shots.

When the bank's president (Christopher Plummer) is told of the robbery - and which branch specifically is being taken down - calls are made to Madeline White (Jodie Foster), a high-powered fixer armored in a perfectly tailored cream ensemble and a demeanor that's as cold, slick and hard as a frozen lake. Plummer doesn't want her to stop the robbery; that's in the NYPD's hands. What he wants is to make sure that one very specific item in the bank never, ever leaves it. …