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"Take your earplugs."

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

An Illusion Review by Joan Ellis


 

            Take your earplugs to “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. Director Tony Scott presents us with a deafening cacophony of urban noise that starts in the first scene. The cumulative effect is to reduce the audience to a collective nervous wreck. While the subway drama unfolds below ground, Scott unfurls the above ground reaction to the taking of a train full of hostages. This consists primarily of police cars, taxis, motorcycles, and helicopters – all with screaming sirens, horns, and the requisite shattering of glass. Then Scott amplifies the volume to a nearly earsplitting level while we sit trapped in our seats.

            But hold on; things do improve. The noise and peripheral characters could be dispensed with altogether because the movie focuses entirely on two good thriller performances by Denzel Washington and John Travolta. Facing off against the killer’s countdown clock, both men are caught up in a battle of words and psychology; nothing more is needed.
Ryder (John Travolta) commandeers Pelham 1 2 3 (a subway to Pelham that leaves every day at 1:23), cuts loose all cars and passengers but one, and initiates a call to Garver (Denzel Washington), a dispatcher in the bowels of the MTA. He demands one million dollars and a conversation with the mayor. Deadline: one hour. Chaos reigns above ground while below, two men bargain for the lives of the passengers.

            Ryder, it turns out, has a past in business that puts him squarely in the contemporary world of Wall Street scandal. Can he get away with a million dollars and make it work for him while he’s pulling off this heist? What a deal that would be; but he has exacted too big a price for his capital. This man is a demented sicko who is perfectly willing to shoot anyone who annoys him. As for the rest, he will kill one passenger each minute after the deadline passes. Meanwhile, he gets to know Garber.

            As for Garber, he was a glass office man at the MTA until he was accused of skimming bribe money on a business trip to Japan to choose a new model train. Is he guilty? The shadow alone is enough to make Garber vulnerable. Deliberately subduing his natural presence, Denzel Washington is thoroughly credible as a motorman who worked his way up to the front office. So we have a standoff phone conversation between two actors who are so talented that they relegate all the other players, even James Goldofini’s fatuous mayor, to the warm-up pen. A mom and her small son grab our attention but their story line is dropped.

            Though this is a movie wrapped in crisis and mayhem, the only thing we really see is a prolonged conversation between two adversaries, each trying to win a deadly game. The mayhem is merely window dressing for the interaction between John Travolta and Denzel Washington, and for their fans, that’s enough.
 


 

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"The world is terrible, people are terrible, but I am going to be happy."

Whatever Works

An Illusion Review by Joan Ellis


 

            Woody Allen soars with “Whatever Works.” He has acquired that marvelous gift bestowed only by age that allows artists of all kinds to float untethered in their creativity. It looks from here as if Allen has been cut loose from his own imbroglios and demons, that he is free to be exactly who he wants to be. After delighting us with the raw clay and young cynicism of his early films, he tripped into a midlife quality collapse. Now, in this third of his comeback hits, he is back, hilariously, spouting the fine tuned philosophy of a confirmed, but now enlightened, pessimist. And then he adds, “The world is terrible, people are terrible – but I am going to be happy.”

            Through the character of Boris Yellnikoff (Larry David), Allen spews forth his life lessons – “We are stupid, greedy, selfish, shortsighted worms…we are a failed species.” What good is a life full of ‘shoulds’ and ‘if onlys,’ of fruits and vegetables, and colonoscopies when you die anyway? We are a shameful, violent, sophomoric nation.” There it is – all in one grand wrap-up.

            Boris once lived on Beekman Place with his beautiful, smart wife Jessica (Carolyn McCormick) while teaching string theory (string theory!) at Columbia. All this success is too much of burden for “a Nobel level thinker,” so he divorces Jessica and lives alone now in a slovenly apartment elsewhere and hangs out with his buddies Brockman (Conleth Hill) and Ed (Lyle Kanouse) while teaching chess occasionally in Washington Square to kids who stay until he has shredded their egos.

            And then….The flake of all time follows him home. Melodie (Evan Rachel Wood), unmoored in both personality and gesture, has arrived from the deep south without plans, money, or a place to stay. Ms. Wood’s grea t gift to this role is Melodie’s complete unawareness of anything around her. She is unconscious. Of the moment she lost her virginity, “It was just a nice moment behind the tent at the fish fry.” She tends to Boris (“She sits up with me at the hospital when I think my mosquito bite is melanoma.”) They spend Friday nights drinking beer at The Anal Sphincter.

            And then…..Melodie’s mother arrives. The wonderful Patricia Clarkson takes her own character from the abandoned, always-on-the-prowl small town southern flirt to contemporary art photographer at the center of New York’s gallery world. And then…..Melodie’s father, the deserter, arrives. Southern conservative meets wild New York and concludes, “God is gay!”

            Something new has been added to Allen’s lifelong negativism: life is all about relationships so we better tend them. The relationships he and his buddies reach for and find are laced with humor and irony. This is a very funny movie whose small truths come wrapped in high slapstick. An inspired cast – with a special salute to Patricia Clarkson, Evan Rachel Wood, and Larry David - delivers the big lessons to waves of audience laughter: Whatever works, take it!

 



HUNTING VIDEOS
 

When you stand clueless in the video store, try these.  They won’t insult your intelligence. 

 


To Feed a Kooky Sense of Humor
 

Off the Map

Black Cat, White Cat

Big Fish

The Dish

 

Light and Good 

About a Boy

Along Came Polly

As Good As it Gets

Being Julia

Calendar Girls

Enchanted April

In Good Company

Miss Congeniality

My Wife is an Actress

 

Real Events 

13 Days

Shattered Glass

 

The Whole Family 

Billy Elliot

De-Lovely

Gosford Park

Hidalgo

Holes

Pirates of the Carribbean

Rookie

Seabiscuit

Sweet Home Alabama

The Emperor’s Club

Tuck Everlasting

 

Adventure 

Master and Commander

The Bourne Conspiracy

The Edge

The Italian Job

Touching the Void

 


Action
 

Collateral

Day After Tomorrow

   

Drama 

About Schmidt

Afterglow

Closer

Croupier

Don Juan in Hell

Field of Dreams

Frida

Garden of the Finzi-Continis

Gloomy Sunday

House of  Sand and Fog

Last Orders

Legend of Bagger Vance

Map of the World

Million Dollar Baby

Nowhere in Africa

Possession

Rabbit Proof Fence

Songcatcher

Storytelling

Swimming pool

The Deep End

The Natural

The Quiet American

The Talented Mr. Ripley

Unfaithful

When Brendan Met Trudy

Widow of St. Pierre

Invasion of the Barbarians

 

Documentary 

Bowling for Columbine

Fog of War

My Architect

Supersize Me

The Control Room

 

For History Nuts 

Blind Spot