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The taking of Pelham 123

Threat advisory: Guarded - General risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

It's 1:23 pm in New York's Pelham Bay Park when a typical day for New York city subway riders quickly turns into a nightmare. Mister Blue (Vincent D'Onofrio) and his ruthless team of hijackers have taken control of the train and with it, 14 helpless hostages. Transit Authority police chief Anthony Prescotti (Edward James Olmos) and his former partner, Detective Specialist Inez Raye (Lorraine Bracco) are quickly brought into the fray as they fight city hall to answer the hijackers' demands.

The nerve-shattering suspense builds moment as the negotiators play a race against time to raise the $5 million needed to save the hostages' lives. If they can't deliver within the hour, the hijackers will begin shooting their captives. But it's not that easy when the hostages aren't obedient and the heroic defiance of subway conductor Babs Cardoza (Lisa Vidal) takes the fight right up to the psychotic Mister Grey (Donnie Wahlberg), disgruntled former subway employee Mister Green (Richard Schiff) and the callous Mister Brown (Tara Rosling).

As the subway speeds headlong into oblivion, the options run out for those on the right and wrong sides of the law. Will the negotiators meet the hijackers' demands in time? And if they do, will the rules of Mister Blue's deadly game still be the same?

Remade from the 1974 film Taking of Pelham 123.

Cinematic intelligence sources

Studios and distributors:

20th Century Fox

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

A made-for-TV remake of the 1974 film. Right down to the ad breaks.

Repackaged for video, The taking of Pelham 123 is a New York crim gang hijack job with fancy names, technology and psychos. I can't say that there are clichés because there's only one: it lasts 87 minutes.

Highbrow arty-farty criticism aside, The taking of Pelham 123 is still an entertaining fillm. Some action, some blood, some psychos, some aggro, some gadgets, some guns, some cops, some robbers. There's also lots of running around and lots of co-incidences (like the cops walking into the very subway station the baddies are coming out of, of all the subway entrances in all the cities in the world, they had to pick this one.

Good for a laugh if you've watched everything else in the shop and it's a crappy wet, windy Sunday night.

Security censorship classification

M (Medium level violence)

Surveillance time

100 minutes (1:40 hours)

Not for public release in Australia before date

DVD rental: 5 May 2002