“The Taking of Pelham 123” Better Than Expected
Jun 17th
Better Than Expected
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 is a remake of the 1974 film of the same name but with different spelling, and it has been updated with new technology and financial conditions, as well as with the whiz-bang visual techniques of director Tony Scott.
Denzel Washington plays the Walter Matthau role of Walter Garber, a temporary dispatcher of New York City Transit, and John Travolta plays the Robert Shaw role of a man named Ryder, who leads a team of four hijackers of a subway train.
When Garber first talks to Ryder to ask why the train stopped, Ryder says, “This is the man who’s going to give the City a run for its money.”
After some quick and obviously phony calculations, Ryder demands $10 million and one cent in cash in exactly one hour, or else he will start killing one of the 19 passenger hostages for every minute that the money is late.
James Gandolfini plays the mayor, who gets involved when he has to authorize the payment of the ransom, and we get an awful lot of preliminary setup shots followed by an awful lot of talk, plus the flashy visuals of the police racing to transport the money downtown to where the subway car is waiting.
Garber’s boss tells Garber to go home and let the official hostage negotiator from the police take over, which is fine with Garber, because he has had the dispatching job only a couple of weeks. But when Ryder learns that Garber is gone, he shoots the motorman and demands that Garber be brought back for the negotiations.
If you are not familiar with the story, at this point you might start to wonder What’s the suspense? Well, the suspense is in whether the hijackers are going to succeed or fail, depending on which side you are rooting for.
So, essentially we have a weak story with very good execution and exceptionally fine acting, especially by Travolta, who naturally has the showier part.
Garber and Ryder eventually even get to meet face to face when Ryder demands that the dispatcher come underground with the money for reasons we don’t learn until afterwards.
Then we get an exciting ending that we didn’t anticipate.
THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 is better than expected or deserves to be.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
The Taking of Pelham 123 – Movie Trailer
Jun 12th
A New York City subway dispatcher draws on his extensive knowledge of the subway system in order to outsmart a dangerous criminal mastermind who’s hijacked a subway train in this remake of the 1974 thriller inspired by John Godey’s best-selling book. Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) is drifting through his daily routine when he receives word that a heavily armed gang of four has hijacked a subway train and is holding all of the passengers hostage. Led by cunning master thief Ryder (John Travolta), the gunmen will begin executing everyone aboard should the authorities fail in delivering ten million dollars in the space of just one hour. With the tension in the tunnels rising, Walter races to save the hostages before the shootings start. But through it all, there’s one part of Ryder’s plan that Walter can’t quite comprehend: even if the thieves do succeed in getting their money, how could they possibly get out of the tunnels undetected?
“The Hangover” What Happened in Vegas
Jun 9th
What Happened in Vegas
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE HANGOVER is a hilarious comedy about what you don’t want to happen in Las Vegas.
I mean, to you, of course. If it happens to four other guys, then not only do you want it to happen, but you also want to see it in this movie.
Perhaps even more than once, it’s that funny.
The movie begins in the desert outside Las Vegas, and Phil is on the phone talking to Tracy back in California, who is about to get married in five hours.
Phil says, “We lost Doug,” and when Tracy asks for an explanation, Phil says, “We can’t find Doug.”
Doug is the groom, you see, and when Tracy points out to the best man Phil that the ceremony is in five hours, Phil says, “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”
Then we get a title that says “Two Days Earlier,” and we see what happened to Doug, the groom; Phil, the best man; Stu, a good friend of theirs; and Alan, the bride’s brother.
Well, not exactly. We see their preparations for the bachelor party in Las Vegas, we see them leaving California and arriving in Vegas, where they decide to get a suite for $4200 a night, we see them go up onto the roof of the hotel to drink a toast, and we see them say, “To a night the four of us will never forget.”
Then we see them wake up the next morning in their suite, except that none of them can remember what happened the night before.
Now, that wouldn’t be too bad, except that the suite is trashed, there is a chicken walking around, there is a tiger in the bathroom, there is a baby in the closet, Stu is missing a front tooth, and Doug is nowhere to be found.
And then as they try to retrace their steps to figure out what happened and to find Doug, everything goes from bad to worse to you won’t believe how bad it can get.
The three men find new surprises all along the way, the story comes full circle back to that opening scene in the desert, and luckily for us it doesn’t end there, but continues on into the closing credits where we finally learn what happened in Vegas.
THE HANGOVER is disastrous and balls-out hilarious.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
