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12 articles from 2009

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Alice In Wonderland Goes SyFy - Is it Worth the Watch?

4 December 2009 10:18 PM, PST | BuzzFocus.com | See recent BuzzFocus.com news »

I'll be the first to admit it: I hate remakes - especially of classics. I despise them. There should be a law against them. I believe that actors like Denzel Washington and John Travolta are geniuses. And, although I may have dreamed about a "What If?" film coupling of "Travolta meets Washington," I loathed the fact that it was done by remaking the classic film The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. So, I boycotted. Cry all you want, but understand this: somethings are sacred. You don't remake "Pelham" and you don't remake Bewitched or Land of the Lost. I reiterate: you just don't! I'll leave it at that. However, like most rules, this one does have its exceptions - albeit rare. For instance, two years ago the SyFy released a remake of The Wizard of Oz, entitled Tin Man. I balked at the undertaking at first, but found myself »

- Terry Boyden

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5 Awesome Underrated Heist Films

18 June 2009 10:37 AM, PDT | LatinoReview | See recent LatinoReview news »

With the release of Tony Scott.s Taking of Pelham 123, and the upcoming Michael Mann film Public Enemies, a lot of people are probably in the mood to check out more heist films (especially considering Scott.s isn.t very satisfying). By now everyone is familiar the big ones like Oceans 11, Heat, Dog Day Afternoon, etc., so here are some lesser-known but equally great films to satisfy your heist jones:The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3 (Original 1974 version)Obviously the remake is going to raise everyone.s awareness of the original, so it might not be as underrated from now on, but it.s so good that it deserves all the promotion it can get. The plot is basically just like the remake; a grumpy pencil-pushing transit cop (Walter Matthau) is begrudgingly dragged into diffusing a hostage situation when a group of criminals led by mercenary Bernard Ryder/Mr. Blue »

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Weekend Report: Lush 'Hangover,' 'Up' Linger Over Typical 'Taking'

15 June 2009 1:23 PM, PDT | Box Office Mojo | See recent BoxOfficeMojo.com news »

The good times continued to roll for The Hangover and Up, though not so much for the new movies and the box office as a whole. Hangover kept its buzz going with $32.8 million, while Up maintained its slow descent with $30.8 million. While those pictures were bustling, overall business was down 24 percent from the same weekend last year and had the lowest attendance for the timeframe in over a decade. Imbibing an exceptional $104.8 million in ten days, The Hangover saw the smallest dip among nationwide releases, down 27 percent. The ribald comedy held better than Knocked Up at the same point, but not quite as well as Wedding Crashers. Regardless of the percentage drops, though, it's grossed significantly more than those pictures at the ten-day mark, even when adjusted for ticket price inflation, and has flown way above genre norms. Up eased 30 percent and its tally climbed to $187.4 million in 17 days, the »

- Brandon Gray

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Trainiac!

12 June 2009 8:35 AM, PDT | NYPost.com | See recent New York Post news »

There are two conditions for getting maximum enjoyment out of Tony Scott's "re-imagining" of "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" starring Denzel Washington as a dispatcher negotiating with subway hijacker John Travolta.

First, try to put aside memories of the original 1974 movie -- "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" with Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw in approximately the Washington and Travolta roles.

Scott's film wisely goes out of its way to »

- By LOU LUMENICK

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Film: Review: The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3

11 June 2009 12:14 PM, PDT | avclub.com | See recent The AV Club news »

John Travolta’s wildly successful post-comeback crusade to become synonymous with crap continues with The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3, Tony Scott’s bracingly awful remake/desecration of the classic ‘70s thriller. The miscalculations begin with Travolta’s distractingly Tetris-shaped facial hair—long rectangular sideburns paired with a geometric Fu Manchu—and extend to every facet of the production. Cursed with following in the outsized footsteps of world-class heavy Robert Shaw, Travolta devours the scenery; his performance is 0% inspiration, 100% perspiration.  Denzel Washington stars as a former New York transit bigwig under a cloud of suspicion after »

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The Timing of "Pelham 1 2 3"

10 June 2009 7:23 AM, PDT | ifc.com | See recent IFC news »

I first saw Joseph Sargent's original "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" at Film Forum less than a month before September 11th. The theater's later revival of the classic 1974 heist movie unspooled two weeks after the blackout of 2003. The coincidental timing of both engagements reinforced what makes Sargent's film (with a script by Peter Stone, based on John Godey's 1973 novel) one of the best movies about New York City: a group of disparate Gotham cranks, weirdoes and hotheads come together in the face of disaster. The original "Pelham" may have been made during the era when President Ford told the city, reeling from crime and near-bankruptcy, to "drop dead," but the passengers aboard that hijacked subway car and the team of negotiators led by Walter Matthau's grumpy Transit Authority cop proved they weren't going down without a few up-yours to the quartet of hoods who messed with them. »

- Melissa Anderson

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Classic Ten - The Most Pulse-Raising Hostage Scenarios

9 June 2009 10:01 PM, PDT | amctv - Future of Classic: Classic Ten | See recent amctv - Future of Classic: Classic Ten news »

The star-powered reboot of the seventies classic The Taking of Pelham One Two Three follows the classic hostage-flick trajectory. There's a disgruntled man, a plan, a deadline, a dollar amount or some other prize, and a team of good guys racing against the clock to save the innocent people being held for ransom. That said, the most gripping hostage scenarios on the big screen don't necessarily need a Travolta-Washington »

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Retro Cafe: 'The Taking of Pelham One Two Three'

4 June 2009 9:50 PM, PDT | CinemaSpy | See recent CinemaSpy news »

Modern thrillers, and action films to an extent, seem to me to take themselves pretty seriously. I love the 'Bourne' films, which are probably the new benchmark of modern thriller filmmaking, but there seems very little time taken in contemporary thrillers to give the audience little respites of humor, even in the relationships between characters.

Action-thrillers from the 1970s seem to me to have a much greater sense of fun and levity to them. A film like The French Connection, doubtless as gritty and downright thrilling as any film you will ever see, has a huge number of terrific lines and moments between the lead characters that bring them down to earth and away from Superman-like invincibility.

Then there's The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. Not forgotten by any means, but there’s no doubt that it has been overtaken in the public's collective memory by the more revolutionary »

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Exclusive interview with Tony Scott about ‘The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3′

28 May 2009 5:35 AM, PDT | The Cinema Post | See recent The Cinema Post news »

Empire Magazine had an exclusive interview with Tony Scott in which he talks about his new take on “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three”, the original of which was released in 1974 and starred Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw.

Tony Scott’s reboot (that word again) stars John Travolta and Denzel Washington, in what Scott calls a “version” of the original. He told Empire he had a call from writer and long-term collaborator Brian Helgeland. “Brian came to me with it. He said, ‘Listen, I’ve done this version of this - it’s not the Pelham you remember, but it’s a version of it.’ And whenever Brian brings me anything, I’m interested.”

This new version of the original will utilize our modern technology in the storyline, and will be more of a twist and turn thriller: “Even when I saw [the original] back in the ’70s I had thought it didn’t make sense. »

- Paul Larn

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The Taking of Pelham 123 trailer is live! Starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta.

13 February 2009 | Movie Jungle | See recent Movie Jungle news »

  "The Taking of Pelham 123" trailer live! Starring Denzel Washington, John Travolta, John Turturro, Luis Guzman, Michael Rispoli and James Gandolfini. Tony Scott directs the remake of the 1974 film now adapted by Brian Helgeland ("Man on Fire," "Cirque du Freak," "Nottingham")  

The original film was directed by Joseph Sargent, adapted by Peter Stone and based on the novel by John Godey. It starred Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, Earl Hindman, James Broderick and Dick O'Neill.   In The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Denzel Washington stars as New York City subway dispatcher Walter Garber, whose ordinary day is thrown into chaos by an audacious crime: the hijacking of a subway train. John Travolta stars as Ryder, the criminal mastermind who, as leader of a highly-armed gang of four, threatens to execute the train’s passengers unless a large ransom is paid within one hour. As the tension mounts beneath his feet, »

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Taking Of Pelham 123 Trailer Now Online

12 February 2009 11:10 PM, PST | EmpireOnline | See recent EmpireOnline news »

Heck of a week for getting our first look at Tony Scott’s The Taking Of Pelham 123 – first came the launch of the movie’s poster, and now the trailer for the Denzel Washington/John Travolta thriller has gone live over at Yahoo! Movies.The remake of Joseph Sargent’s 1974 heist thriller, The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three, Scott’s modern update sees Washington’s Everyman New York subway controller go head-to-head with Travolta’s psycho criminal, after the latter hijacks a subway train.The original, which pitted Walter Matthau against Robert Shaw’s cold-blooded Mr. Blue, was an undeniably tense, but playful affair. The remake, apart from one brief exchange between Washington’s character and his wife regarding milk, seems to be a much more intense, serious and, dare we say, dour affair.It’s very Tony Scott, with jazzy, flashy camerawork and whiplash editing, and clearly »

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The Taking Of Pelham 123 Poster Online

10 February 2009 11:27 AM, PST | EmpireOnline | See recent EmpireOnline news »

The first poster for Tony Scott’s The Taking Of Pelham 123 has just gone online over at joblo.com – and it’s a mean and moody affair.The movie, a remake of the 1974 Joseph Sargent classic, The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three, sees John Travolta play a villain who hijacks a subway train – the aforementioned Pelham 123 – along with his gang of high-class crooks. And the only person who can stop them, as it turns out, is Denzel Washington’s Mta train dispatcher.The original is a belter, pitting Walter Matthau against Robert Shaw, but this is a pairing that could be equally compelling. Certainly, the poster successfully conveys the basic premise: it’s Washington, in geeky glasses and an Inside Man goatee, vs Travolta, who looks lived-in, pissed-off and so tough he can even pull off a Village People moustache.Click the image above to view larger version on JoBlo. »

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12 articles from 2009

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