ada the leading man is my tpye

Diagonaldi Very well executed

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Leofwine_draca THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 is an ill-advised TV movie remake of the original classic with Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. Why they keep remaking classics I have no idea, because there's no chance they'll improve on the original. The Denzel Washington version was better than this but still nowhere near close to the original film's quality.Based on the same screenplay, the story plays out exactly the same here, albeit with a much cheaper budget and scuzzy, dated-looking direction which tries to be hip and stylish in that late '90s way (that invariably looks embarrassing to the modern viewer). The cast is the best thing about this, with solid bad guy turns from the likes of the reliable Vincent D'Onofrio, Donnie Wahlberg, and Richard Schiff, while Edward James Olmos is equally tough as the transit cop. You can't help but wonder why they bothered, though.

bpoind Every single actor in the 1974 movie was better than any of the actors in this TV remake. I guess they needed a New York accent, so they threw in Lorraine Bracco. Nice save.One thing the TV movie really glossed over was the issue of getting the ransom money to the terrorists on time. You'd really have to watch the 1974 movie to see the difference. Getting things done in one hour was a real nail-biter in the original movie. It's like "meh" in the TV movie.And that really leads me to the most important point: almost nobody seems to be afraid in the TV movie, including the hostages. You have one woman having one, strangely short-term panic attack. She has to carry the emotional load for her torpid companions, it seems to me. She recovers, inexplicably, without meds. Most of the time she seems perfectly rational.I have no idea what Stuart Copland had in mind with that score of his, but its pretty meditative compared to David Shire's work. All- in- all, I was not happy with the TV movie.

wombat_1 What a tedious load of drivel this is. It tries for "suspense", instead it achieves "stilted" and "boring". Almost as if the director was saying "OK, guys, freeze for five more seconds" in almost every scene.Walter Matthau was great in the original. I saw him as a serious actor, in the original of this one and in "Kill Charlie Varrick" long before today's kids saw him as a "Grumpy Old Man" actor. And he really makes the original movie shine. But I suspect that even he, had he been somehow edited into THIS load of rubbish, could not have saved it.

oguer22656 I don't know why Hollywood feels the need to re-do classic movies. Can they not come up with original storylines anymore? This tv movie was lacking in so many areas. The actors had no chemistry, the dialog was banal, and the action seemed contrived. Don't waste your time on this one. Rent or better yet, buy the original starring Walter Matthau.