Friday, March 13, 2009

If you're going to take Pelham 123, take it right!

I'll admit, I keep going back and forth on film remakes. One minute I'm all for them, as in my eagerness to see the new Last House on the Left. The next minute, I'm bitching and whining because I just saw the irritating trailer the new update of The Taking of Pelham 123...



I can almost understand casting John Travolta as the head bad guy, even if the last five or six bad guy characters played by him seem to blend all into the same chirpy, smooth-talking sociopath. But what I don't understand is why, in an attempt to copy Walter Matthau's frumpy middle-aged MTA worker, they hired Denzel Washington and try to dress him up as a frumpy middle-aged guy. Aren't there any frumpy aging actors worth hiring? And exactly which studio head insisted that they squeeze a bunch of car chases into a subway train heist picture? I suppose I should just be thankful that they didn't reduce the title to a marquee-friendly word or two, like Taking Pelham, or just Pelham. I'm not.

If you need a refresher as to just how good the original was, you can watch it in its entirety below, thanks to the evil aliens over at Hulu.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Loved that movie as a kid. I doubt the remake will be near as good. Love you blog. Thanks for sharing.