The Taking of Pelham 123

The first big drama of the 2009 Summer season, is "The Taking of Pelham 123," starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta.

The film, directed by Tony Scott, is a remake of the 1974 film, with Washington reprising the role previously played by Walter Matthau and Travolta reprising the role previously played by Robert Shaw.

In the film, Washington plays a New York City subway dispatcher whose day gets turned upside down when the Pelham 123 train is hijacked by a highly-armed group of criminals led by Travolta who threatens to execute the passengers if a ransom of $10,000,000 isn't payed within one hour.

When Travolta's character Ryder, contacts Washington's character Walter Garber, Ryder decides to speak with Garber and only Garber.

Garber, who is highly knowledged in the New York subway system, attempts to use his knowledge as an advantage to outwit Travolta and his gang.

First off, Travolta in this film has clearly played the strongest and most sinister villain he has played on screen, a role that topped his previous villainous performances in Swordfish and Broken Arrow.

Denzel, like always was at the top of his game, playing the mild-mannered, yet conflicted Garber.

Unfortunately, Denzel and Travolta didn't share much screen time until the final scenes in the film, but the on-screen chemistry between the two was solid.

I will have to say that story-wise, the movie lost me at quite a few points, and the action sequences at times were a bit too extreme. Also, you never really know why Travolta wants his ransom, instead you learn he is conflicted against the city of New York and his hijacking is a payback, plus I have never heard the MF word uttered so many times in one movie.

Despite this, I wouldn't rank the film among the tops so far this year like Star Trek or The Hangover but good nonetheless.

Next time on the Reel Revue, my review for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson.