Calling a halt

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
15, Nationwide

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is a remake of the 1974 film which starred Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw — remember the ending; the sneeze and the gesundheit? — and I don’t know how this remake got off the ground exactly, but I’m imagining the initial meeting went something like this:

Film Executive #1: ‘Let’s remake The Taking of Pelham One Two Three but do it dumber.’

Film Executive #2: ‘How much dumber?’

Film Executive #1: ‘Much, much dumber. And we’ll finish with an armed face-off instead of a sneeze. You can’t get less clever than that.’

Film Executive #2: ‘Great! I love it!’

Honestly, I sometimes think even I could cut it as a Hollywood player and, to this end, have even mooted a new version of Gone with the Wind, which also ends in an armed face-off. Obviously, I’m not going to tell you who gets it, Rhett or Scarlett, but I am happy to tell you this: for one of them, tomorrow is certainly not another day.

Anyhow, on to this film, which is directed with great hyperactivity by Tony Scott (Top Gun, Crimson Tide, that kind of thing), and does, at least, retain the basic premise. Here, we have Walter Garber (Denzel Washington in Matthau’s role), a New York City subway train dispatcher whose day doesn’t quite go to plan when one of the trains is hijacked by a gang of bad guys as led by Ryder (John Travolta, as Robert Shaw), who demands to be given $10 million within one hour. Ten million dollars doesn’t seem a great deal to me — didn’t Posh spend that on handbags last week? — but that’s what he wants, and for every minute over the hour he is kept waiting he will shoot one of the passengers now being held hostage.