Tony Scott directing + Denzel Washington and John Travolta starring = a good movie. Notice I just said good, not really good or great or really great or awesome. Just good. And I place the majority of the blame on John Travolta. Now I am not one of those John Travolta haters out there who thinks that he is terrible. I just think he played his character all wrong, or else was the part was just cast with the wrong actor. In the movie, Denzel is the good guy and Travolta is the bad guy. Normally, the phrase "John Travolta is playing the bad guy" gets me fired up. I think he has played some of the most entertaining, if not over the top, bad guys. See Broken Arrow. See also Face/Off. See also also Swordfish. Say what you want about the guy, those were all some pretty fun performances. This one, however, is not.
In Pelham 123, armed men, led by Travolta's character, hijack a subway train, and hold the passengers hostage for ransom. This turns a normal day for Denzel's character, who is a former big shot at the New York transit authority, now pulling dispatch duty while an investigation against him is on going, into one hell of a day. Because he was the dispatcher for the train that was hijacked, Travolta's villain decides that he will only talk to/cooperate with Denzel. This results in a tense game of cat and mouse between the two.
In this film, you see Travolta's bad guy as a handle bar mustache wearing, neck tattoo sporting thug, who happens to be brilliant. The whole movie, you know that Travolta's true motives are not what they seem, and when his true identity and reason behind committing this crime are revealed, you really have a hard time putting the criminal and the crime together. Travolta's best villains are cool, collected masterminds, who don't get rattled and don't "look" evil. And given what we find out about who Travolta's character is, he should be exactly that. But instead we get a some times cool, some times volatile, thug looking guy who does a terrible job at being a bad guy. Sure he "looks" evil, but he looks like a petty biker thug and not the mastermind that his character is supposed to be. Not only does the image not fit the criminal, Travolta's performance is just awkward. You feel like he couldn't really figure out how to play this guy, and you just don't get that uh oh feeling that you are supposed to get from a super villain like he is supposed to be.
As for every other aspect of the film, its very well done. Tony Scott continues to use the visual style of filming that he has adopted for his last few film, but tones down the choppy scene cuts and strange angles, yet stick with the acid trip color palate. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, think about the movies Domino, Man on Fire, and Deja Vu, and that's how this one is filmed. It just makes you a little less cross-eyed than the others. Denzel is his usual steady, awesome, good guy self. You really feel for the guy even though he is a flawed hero. You want him to win and you want everything good that can happen to him to happen. Because of this, you really hate a lot of the characters at one point or another in the film when they oppose him for various reasons. Most redeem themselves so, in that since its a "happy" film.
While this movie is tense at points and thoroughly entertaining throughout the majority of the film, it is quite predictable, and my roommate Timmy even called the ending to perfection at one point. While it doesn't take too much away from the movie, we, as movie watchers, still like to be a little surprised sometimes.
The only other knock I have is that the cussing got to be a little too much. I'm not one that gets uncomfortable in films that have a lot of bad language. I think a lot of times it is needed to create the tone of the story, and many times lines in movies just don't have the same punch without a well placed cuss word. But this one took the cussing a little too far, and it kind of became a bit of a distraction, if for no other reason other than there were a few unnecessary F-bombs. But I'm nitpicking now.
Overall, i thought this was a very watchable movie. It was far from perfect, and definitely not one Tony Scott's, Denzel's or Travolta's best, but I was still glad that I saw it. I think anyone would not be disappointed if they rented this one. Yes its R-rated, and yes there are too many cuss words, and yes there aer a few violent, and disturbing scenes, but is an R-rated action thriller. That's what its supposed to have in it. I recommend this to any one who likes a good R-rated action thriller every once in a while.
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