I was so looking forward to getting through this movie and then comparing it with Reservoir Dogs. Noticing how all the characters who committed these elaborate Heist plans, didn't end up using the same 'colour' names.
But unfortunately there's some overlap.
Tarantino you done screwed up.
You just had to go and use it blue and brown.
Okay so on a more serious note 'The Taking of Pelham One Two Three' is phenomenal.
It's a surprisingly simple story inter-mixed with great acting and surprisingly well put cinematography which makes for a wonderfully entertaining film.
Four men take control of a single transit train and extort the city of New York out of $1000000.
Walter Matthau plays a police Lieutenant who overlooks the entirety of the New York City Metro System.
And it's his job to both negotiate and stop this group of delinquents from getting way of the one mil or murdering 18 innocent people who happened to be stuck on this train.
It's one of those movies where if you sit down and think about it for more than 20 minutes you can start pointing out little flaws in the Heights or even and how the police conduct there different procedures. But really it this doesn't matter. the whole thing's put together so well and paste so perfectly that you just stop caring about that kind of stuff. You get sucked into the moment and you just want to see what's going to happen next. Honestly it's giving me die hard flashbacks the entire time watching it.
If nothing else it's worth watching for the dialogue alone. It's so stereo-typically early 70s New Yorker and it's absolutely wonderful.
I kept expecting Archie Bunker to pop up at some point complaining about how he couldn't get home in time.
Kind of funny. In a way, Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw are both far too good for this movie.
They both put on a top performance and they easily could have just walked through this whole thing. But instead you get this spectacular little back and forth between them, as they try to have this awkward negotiation over the communications of the train line. Along side the bureaucracy of both New York Transit and the New York mayoral office trying to keep from making the entire thing blow up in their face.
In fact I think it's that helps out with a pacing so much.
Alot of the first 30 minutes is just the mayor and his subordinates trying to debate if they should even come up with a million dollars to save the 18 people.
How much does that have to suck?
Knowing that your life is barely worth more than $100,000, or half of these people maybe it's less than $70,000.
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