The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009/Sony Blu-ray + DVD)
Picture: B/C+
Sound: B+/B- Extras: C Film: C
One of the worst trends lately is remaking a film that was
just remade as a failed remake. The Poseidon Adventure was remade as a
bomb TV mini-series, yet Warner decided to do an expensive feature film only to
see it (here comes the pun) tank. Joseph
Sargent’s The Taking Of Pelham One Two
Three (also 1974) was remade as an unmemorable TV movie back in 1998 with
Edward James Olmos, Vincent D’Onofrio and Donnie Wahlberg that was a big
mistake. So now we get Tony Scott
remaking the film 11 years after that with Denzel Washington and John
Travolta. It’s commercial fate will
never be based on what audiences thought as Travolta’s son died and he was not
available to promote the film, resulting in poor box office, but the film is
now out on Blu-ray and DVD. So did it
work?
Not exactly, but it could have. The biggest problem is that it is again set
in New York (not Toronto like the TV movie) where the original
film was made. After 9/11, that is a big
mistake in judgment since Travolta takes on Robert Shaw’s role as essentially a
domestic terrorist. The choppy opening
shot that equates his character with urban Hip Hop tries to establish his
character as “street” while not being able to escape the shadow of his iconic
role in Saturday Night Fever. Washington
takes on Walter Matthau’s role as Garber, the radio subway attendant who lands
up becoming unwittingly caught up in the killer’s madness.
At first, the story sets up an ironic difference in the
characters (Washington
is a family man who is no longer “street” if he ever was) and Travolta’s Ryder
is a new kind of urban guy outside of inclusion into society. This could have been an interesting dynamic
had Brian Helgeland’s screenplay adaptation held up, but his broad commercial
writing is some of the poorest for a successful writer today with few
exceptions and this is not good. He gets
distracted with idiotic bits like Ryder’s possible connection to Catholicism
which has nothing to do with anything and seems as thrown in as much of what
happens after the first 15 minutes of the film.
Of course like the original, some other good name actors
make up the supporting cast like John Tuturro, James Gandolfini, Luis Guzman
and Michael Rispoli, but the film gets lost in a bad combination of
predictability, too much post-modern editing with shaky camera work and a
script that is all over the place. The
money is in the production and few action pieces, but it adds up to little
except some wasted performances and no point.
The original film had a cynical edge about the city and in
that; another city besides New York
of all cities should have been picked to remake this. MGM was hoping for a hit and enough people
missed this that it will likely do business on Blu-ray and DVD, but not for too
long as it is a disappointment. Scoot
has not made a feature film since the underrated Déjà vu (reviewed elsewhere on
this site) and this was a more commercial move.
Too bad it does not hold together.
The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot
in Super 35mm film format is somewhat soft due to the “urban style” of the
piece, which means it looks like everything is slightly in the shade (very
unrealistic) no matter how bright and sunny it is. We have seen much worse versions of this, but
it does not work here and the anamorphically enhanced DVD is much softer to the
point it can be hard to watch. The
DTS-HD Master Audio (MA) lossless 5.1 mix goes from dialogue-based clean
recording to bombastic moments of sound that has some character and is better
than many mixes we have heard lately, yet it is not great either. However, I will not fault it for its silent
moments and this is a good recording.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on both formats can be lively, but are no
match for the DTS-MA and comparisons will show subtle ways why. Harry Gregson-Williams’ score is his weakest
in years and no match for the David Shire music from the original film.
Extras on both versions include four making of
featurettes, two feature length audio commentaries (one by Scott, the other by Helgeland
and Producer Todd Black) and the Blu-ray adds MovieIQ & cinechot
interactive functions and Digital Copy for PC and PC portable devices.
For more on the music of the 1974 version, try this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/242/Taking+of+Pelham+1-2-3+(1974/Limited+Editi
- Nicholas Sheffo