Movies Ayo! Scott: ‘The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3′ Derails
John Travolta hates when people don’t give up train seats for pregnant women.
Ayo! Scott is like the MTA—only when he runs train he comes on time and doesn’t smell like a crazy shit-smeared hobo. Not that Ayo! is bitter about paying two dollars to get railed by NYC public transportation. Despite some rough riding, it does eventually get him from A to B. The same can be said of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, director Tony Scott’s remake of the 1974 movie based on John Godey’s book.
In the middle of the busy Manhattan workday, a team of criminals hijacks the 1:23 p.m. 6 local train out of Pelham Bay Park. Led by neck-tatted, biker ’stache-sporting ex-con Ryder (John Travolta), they demand $10 million ransom for a car full of hostages, and don’t think twice about blasting fools. On the other end of negotiations is Walter Garber (the transcendent Denzel Washinton), an MTA lifer who’s been humiliated and demoted to train dispatcher following allegations that he took bribes. Although a police negotiator and the mayor (played well by John Turturro and James Gandolfini, respectively) try to get involved, Ryder insists that the working stiff, who may once have been tempted to break the rules for some quick cash, stay on the line with him until the deal is done (similarities between them aside, Ryder says he thinks Garber’s voice is sexy enough that he’d have taken him as his prison bitch)…
