The Taking of Pelham 123

What a film! I hate Tony Scott movies from this century, but this one was brilliant. It was very well written, especially Denzel and Travolta's characters. Travolta is brilliant when playing the villain, he really delivers those great lines with punch and humour - I was laughing loads through this. Denzel, what an actor. He's really easy to watch because you just always underrate him and then he gives a stellar performance. He played the normal every-man, not the gung-ho hero, and it worked very well.

The music wasn't great, it felt like stock, and the editing wasn't like in normal films (it was still in Scott territory - choppy and fast), but it wasn't as unwatchable as, say, Man on Fire or Domino. I had a real blast watching this movie. I wish they made more movies like this. I've not seen the original, but I can't imagine it being a quarter as good as this was. In movies, I always root for the enemy, and so naturally I wanted Travolta to get away, which he kind of did, but Densel won in the end, which I was also fine with because he was great in this. That's top-notch film-making for you.

I've just noticed that the last three Scott movies had Denzel in them and he worked with him a total of five times! As it is I haven't watched many Scott movies from this century so I haven't seen Unstoppable and Deja Vu, but I might just try and watch them now after seeing Pelham 123. Well, I might not bother with Unstoppable because it really does look shit, but Deja Vu is on my list to watch.

A

Totally agree with this. It didn't work well at all in Man on Fire and Domino, but in this, a film that had a fast approaching deadline, it worked terrifically. However, overall I still do dislike Scott as a director because he uses the same fucking editing style and mixture of shots in every movie, it's far too wild for most movies. But I guess that doesn't matter anymore.