It's always said that crime doesn't pay, but it usually does, at least in the short term. After all, that's what entices so many people to participate in such illegal behavior, as it's usually a quick if sometimes easy way to obtain large amounts of cash more expeditiously than by working some 9 to 5 schedule.
While pimps, drug dealers and bank robbers might live lavish lifestyles with lots of bling, they usually pale in comparison to their white collar counterparts who often get away with stealing millions and even billions without any of their victims realizing what hit them until months or years later.
Yes, we're talking about corrupt corporate high rollers, but while they might be better dressed than their less tony counterparts, they're essentially the same sort of beast, always ready to take their prey along for a losing ride. A combination of the two are busy at work in "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," a remake of the 1974 film of the same name (albeit with the numbers spelled out).
In that thriller, Robert Shaw and his color named cohorts (Green, Gray and Brown, adding to his Blue -- and apparently a source of naming inspiration for Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs") hijack a NYC subway train and demand a cool $1 million, all while a Transit Authority Police detective (Walter Matthau) tries to resolve the situation. I haven't seen the film in decades so memories of details are mostly scant, but I recall it being an okay thriller for its time.
Here, writer Brian Helgeland (probably best known for "L.A. Confidential") updates that premise (and John Godey's original source novel) with various contemporary elements, but it's basically the same story. John Travolta and a trio of thugs hijack a subway train, disconnect it down to one car, and then park that in the middle of a tunnel. Their demand is $10 million (adjusting for inflation, I suppose) in one hour, or else they'll start killing their small bounty of hostages.
Stuck in the middle is a dispatcher (the always solid Denzel Washington) who must not only contend with being the point man, but also the go-between regarding the head villain, the hostage negotiator (John Turturro) and the retiring mayor (an amusing James Gandolfini) who'd rather be anywhere but here dealing with this mess.
For about two-thirds of the movie, what you get is essentially a verbal mano y mano confrontation -- radio style -- between the lead villain and the dispatcher. While hardly anything original or surprising (wow, you mean the hero has flaws as well?), the two actors take the material and deliver decent thespian results. That's even if some viewers might find Travolta's performance either too far over the top or about as menacing as Vinnie Barbarino all grown up and gone bad (the fact that his character delivers witty and/or sarcastic lines clearly deflates some of his potential menace, even if he occasionally goes lethal on his victims).
The big problem, however, is that Denzel apparently comes with Tony Scott attached at the hip (this being their fourth collaboration together), and the director is up to his old tricks once again. That means lots of frenetic but rarely engaging action, spin around camera shots centering on and symbolizing the characters feeling overwhelmed, onscreen titles, helicopters flying about, and plenty of slow motion, sped-up and highly stylized visual trickery.
I suppose it's possible the target demographic of young males grooves on that sort of directorial style, but Scott runs it into the ground as usual, especially when he ramps it up in the third act that jettisons the talky drama for car crashes, foot chases and such. In fact, for a film that's all about a potentially deadly deadline (onscreen titles keep indicating how many minutes are left in the original hour-long countdown), that temporal quality isn't particularly nerve-wracking or suspenseful.
The best white collar criminal in movie history might just be Hans Gruber, but he had the benefit of being played by Alan Rickman across from Bruce Willis (in the similar wrong man in the wrong place victim/hero character) in what's arguably the best action film of the past quarter century ("Die Hard) and that was directed by someone (John McTiernan) who knew what he was doing.
Scott's obviously knowledgeable and comfortable with his modus operandi, but that very style is what ultimately derails this thriller. And that might just be the biggest crime of all. Okay for a while but ultimately jumping the tracks in act three, "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" rates as a 4 out of 10.
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