The Taking of Pelham 123

Here's another odd beast.

The Taking of Pelham 123, the original 1976 version, is a tense psychological
drama. You've got Walter Matthau as a veteran traffic cop, and Robert Shaw as a
measured, calculating hijacker.

Tony Scott, however, likes shouting loonies and car chases. So when he remade
it, he decided to throw in a shouting loony in the form of John Travolta's
hijacker, and a bunch of car chases in a film about a stationary train. There's
a bit where some police have to drive two bags of money across town, with a
motorcycle escort. Despite nobody actually trying to stop them in any way,
somehow two cars get flipped and a couple of bike cops ride straight into
stationary objects. There is spectacle for the sake of it all over the shop.

Despite that, however, the original tense psychological thriller is still there,
and while Travola chews quite a lot of carpet, it's quite a fun performance
which doesn't harm the film. The overall effect is sort of like someone took a
roast dinner and put icing and sprinkles on it, to make it *even better*.

Ultimately, this is a pretty decent DVD rental, or "OK, so we're at the
pictures, what shall we see?" movie, but don't go out of your way. A good film,
but not a great one, which actually, the original version is.