The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

John Travolta (single handedly attempting to bring the Fu Manchu mustache back into fashion) stars as Ryder – a mysterious gang leader who has captured a New York City subway car along with over a dozen hostages. If he doesn’t receive $10 million, Ryder promises to start killing the passengers one-by-one, and he only wants to negotiate with the dedicated, experienced train dispatcher, Walter Garber (Denzel Washington), who ended up working at the wrong desk, on the wrong day.

What is Ryder’s plan?

Can Garber manage the situation like a seasoned negotiator?

How could they ever get the money off the subway car and out of the station?

Director Tony Scott is smart enough to focus most of the movie where it should be, on Travolta and Washington. This is an easy to understand story, and compelling premise, so you don’t need to add a bunch of intrigue and camera tricks to get the audience’s attention (even though Scott does from time to time, more on that later). Ultimately, the script from Brian Helgeland (based on the novel by John Godey) puts our attention on the give and take between the two men, how each one is trying to control the situation and the head games they engage in to reach their goals, which gives us a chance to enjoy the lead actors for everything they do so well.

Washington is absolutely solid, and the rock of the cast with his weary persona, but also gives us a chance to see how savvy this guy is and make us believe he might be able to outsmart the gang based on his knowledge of the system and overall intelligence. It’s the perfect contrast to Ryder, which is needed as Travolta hams it up.

Travolta is very good when he plays Ryder as an intense, angry guy with something more up his sleeve than we realize, but sometimes he is over the top and too wacky (hamming it up like he might have the Swine Flu). He does provide some well timed humor, but the audience also is left laughing at some of his crazy, bug eyed rantings, when giggles are not intended.

Even more enjoyable, you get to see Tony Soprano breaking out and doing something different. James Gandolfini is awesome as the mayor who is kinda sick of the job, and the city definitely is sick of him. He has the best reactions to the craziness going on around him, and makes the mayor such a jerk (with the perfect NY attitude) that it’s fun to watch him act so contradictory to most politicians you see in movies.

Sadly, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 goes off the tracks towards the end (and I deserve 10 minutes in Movie Critic Time Out for using that pun). Scott tries a bit too hard to add “style” including too many effects like going to a blurry slow motion too often, adding loud music when it isn’t always needed, and providing quick edits that don’t serve much of a purpose (unless editor Chris Lebenzon is hoping to include some of this on his demo reel, or attempt to get an Oscar nomination). All of this is cool for the opening credits, but it’s pushing it too far to copy over and over again through the movie, especially since it doesn’t add anything to the story.

Then, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 starts to spiral a bit out of control towards the end. We get away from the simple premise of two guys talking to each other to become too overwrought and make the audience question if these characters would actually behave like this. Plus, the final stand off between Gavin and Ryder is a bit too much to believe, so much that I had to laugh at the ending (and not in the good way).

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is a solid action movie, especially if you like Washington, Travolta and Gandolfini.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is rated R for violence and pervasive language.