Imagine a really good action film without cartoon-like special effects or super heroes? Imagine a film based on a highjacking of the New York subway system – post 9/11 – and thinking it might be acceptable. That’s the deal with the remake of the 1974 film about a Radio control operator, Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) whose 9 to 5 day-in-the-life is thrown into complete chaos by a hijacker (John Travolta) demanding ten million dollars or all the passenger’s die. While Denzel’s character is cool and in-control – spending most of the movie behind a desk and radio controls – Travolta is on his game as a psycho (a throw back to his “Pulp Fiction” days). James Gandolfini is the Mayor (reminiscent of our own New York’s Mayor Blumberg) and John Turturro plays Captain Camonetti the hostage negotiator with conviction. When Travolta says “Do I sound like a terrorist?” we realize he’s not. He’s about money, not about lives. And he’s got some deep-seeded issues that Denzel seems to tap into in their psychological game of cat and mouse. As the ticking clock moves to its countdown, we learn that Pelham 123 is named for a train that comes out of Pelham station at 1:23 every day. High moving, highly entertaining, and directed by Tony Scott, the best news of all is that this quick-thinking script is written by the great Brian Helgeland (my favorite screenwriter best known for “L A Confidential.”) Four tiaras
