Review of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) by Compi24 — 28 Nov 2012
"The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three" is a 1974 action thriller starring Walter Mathau and Robert Shaw. The movie was directed by Joseph Sargent and it tells the story of a man (Shaw) who, with some other gunmen, hijack a subway train in New York City.
The man is soon pitted against a railway police official (Mathau) who, with the help of others, tries to stop him. Now let me start off by saying that I actually saw the 2009 Tony Scott remake before I saw the 1974 original.
Is the original better than the 2009 remake? In short - yeah, pretty much. In comparing the two movies, it seemed as though, while the 2009 remake felt more up-to-date, it's more modern approach to elements presented in the original often came off as too over-the-top.
I felt that in presenting these certain elements, the 1974 version came off more subtle and pulled it off with a lot more finesse. The 1974 movie has two really impressive actors in the leading roles - Mathau and Shaw.
Both of which are really, very entertaining in "Pelham", but I'd have to say that Shaw's performance shines the most in this movie. His demeanor throughout the entire movie is really hilarious.
He just comes off as this soulless jerk - a soulless jerk with some pretty hilarious one-liners. That brings me to the script which, as I said, contains some pretty great one-liners not only from Shaw, but from Mathau and others.
It's nothing really impressive or Oscar-worthy, but it does have a few gems in it here and there. While I, a Generation-Z kid, found this movie to be very easy to watch, it did at times have a few moments of cheese.
That being said, I'm not going to knock the movie for being a little long in the tooth - but it does show sometimes. The movie was really entertaining and I can see why it was well received when it came out.
I can also see the immense amount of expectations the 2009 movie had to live up to. Overall, I found "The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three" to be a fairly enjoyable crime thriller.
This review of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) was written by Compi24 on 28 Nov 2012.
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three has generally received very positive reviews.
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