Review – The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)

Director Tony Scott makes a noisy, muddled mess out of a perfectly good movie from the 1970s. Though they kept some of the good parts of the original – such as hijackers motivated by greed rather than politics – and introduced an occasionally clever new twist or two, overall this wasn’t a step in the right direction. Denzel Washington does a fine – though obviously different – job in the Walter Matthau part, but John Travolta is a pale, twitchy shadow in Robert Shaw’s role. See if desperate