'Pelham 123' never goes off the tracks

The Movie House - Denzel Washington and John Travolta are out to derail one anther in Tony Scott's blistering thriller The Taking of Pelham 123.

Yeah that's right, John Travolta in movies again. Can you believe it? I couldn't when I saw this thing previewed.

Travolta's career has been filled with more misfires than successes, which is a shame because the man clearly can act.

Bursting onto the scene in the 70s with huge films like Grease and Saturday Night Fever, Travolta did absolutely nothing in the 80s worth mentioning but came back in a big way in the 90s with Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.

It was a comeback of Rocky Balboa proportions as Travolta was a big name in Hollywood again but again he had no clue how to pick decent projects to work on all the time.

His range of pictures is extraordinary with huge hits like Face/Off and complete horrendous and abysmal failures like Lucky Numbers.

But here he is again rising like a phoenix from the ashes in Pelham 123 where he plays the psychotic train-jacker known simply as Ryder.

All this Travolta talk almost made me forget Denzel Washington who plays Walter, a train dispatcher on the other end of the line when Ryder makes his demands for $10 million in one hour or the people on the train will become expendable.

This film is blisteringly fast-paced with the train being hijacked even before the opening credits have finished rolling.

The interplay between the two lead actors is laden with increased tension as they try to worm their way into each others minds.

Director Scott plays the idea of these men being complete opposites with some subtle techniques. Walter for example has his left and only his left ear pierced while Ryder has his right and only his right ear pierced.

Their performances are as you would expect - fantastic. Washington plays the everyman hero to a tee, hiding a potentially less than noble secret behind his thick glasses.

Travolta is a livewire, snarling his way into creating a character who is as equally funny as he is frightening. Without these two strong performances from the leads, this film would have been on the tracks headed for failure.

I did have one slight problem with the film in regards to its climax. It resorts to the thriller cliché of the chase scene.

While this is not a horrible idea, the rest of the movie had been much more psychological up till that point so I had been expecting something more in that vein rather than in a visceral nature.

And is it just me or do police not know how to drive in this movie? Just watch the disastrous results that occur as they race through New York traffic. Inept does not even begin to describe it.

All in all, Pelham 123 is a great thriller that you should not miss. It continues a string of great summer movies that has only been marred by Angels & Demons. That movie was just plain bad.

But to Pelham, I award: 3.5J's out of 4.