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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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by Joan Ellis
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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.
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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
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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
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