tECh Fr34k

The Plot:
A subway car in New York City is hijacked by a group of armed men led by the ruthless maniac( played by John Travolta), with a malignant feeling towards the city. The demand: $ 10 million dollars in 60 minutes or they will go forward with the execution of the kindnapped passengers one by one. Forced to act under these extreme circumstances a mild headed dispatcher(played by Denzel Washington), becomes the medium of communcation between the gang and the disenchant mayor of the city.
The Review: The original version of the film was a top-notch thriller directed by Tony Scott in the 70's anchored by two top class performer's namely, leads Walter Matthau, and Robert Shaw. The remake of the classsic blockbuster is the movie of the summer in the genre of action/thriller. Class- A actors, big budgets, big promo's and just the kind of movie for the people of all demography who have been let down by the failures of some of the big tent-pole flicks which have failed to click with the mass. The one problem that you may find is that the reminiscent of the characters played by Denzel and Travolta in their previous movies. I mean Denzel has already played roles of the similar kind and we know how his play is gonna be so this movie lacks the suspence and the crowd can anticipate the next plot before even the scene rolls which affects the movie a lot. I aint agaisnt Denzel( God he is a great actor), but people have seen so many of these characters played by him that its more like he is making sequel to his previous unrelated movies. Same with John here.His expressions remind me of his chartbusters Broken Arrow & Face-off(My all time favourite of Travolta), with the only expression of his screaming "MUTHAFUCKA" a lot. I couldnt find any other change or variations in his speech delivery, well to be frank he looked a bit odd with that so called handle bar moustache(of a bike) and tattoos all over his body.
When you know its been directed by Tony scott, the first thing that strikes is the amount of visual editing tricks, filters, frame freezing, time freeze, follow camera and also wrap around shots etc. The first part of the movie goes is rock solid fast paced, then in thie second slot it looses all its momentum and drags like a snail and finally gives a topsy-turvy over-wrought culmination at its end.
My Take:
I would still go for this movie as its a solid thriller with more visual effects that what could have been emulated in the original version of the movie. This aint the classic work of Denzel like Crimsin Tide or Devil in blue dress but, neverthless better than Deja vu and other flicks which failed to hit the mark on screen. And this is definitely aint Travolta's best comebacks since his talent has been under-rated in this flick. Neverthless he reveals the world the He is joining Sylvester Stallone's clan of comebacks.verall, PELHAM 123 is a passable time thriller, but nothing more.
Grade: 7/10
Recommended.