Weekend Movie Forecast: The Taking Of Pelham 1-2-3

As the NY Post puts it, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is the "train event." Post movie critic Lou Lumenick suggests viewers "suspend any thought of credibility. For starters, as far as I know, nobody has even tried to hijack a subway train since the idea was floated nearly 40 years ago. Go along with that, and you won't have any trouble with the even more preposterous details of Travolta's plot -- much less his (and the filmmakers') need for a wireless connection in a subway tunnel," before settling in to watch Denzel Wasington's "hugely charismatic, expertly modulated movie-star performance" as "Walter Garber, a former MTA exec who has been busted down to dispatcher while facing an ethics investigation" and a "scenery-chewing Travolta [who] is the best he's been since 'Face/Off' as the mustachioed, psychotic villain Ryder -- who, like Garber, has been equipped with a slowly unfolding back story, in Ryder's case as an ex-commodities trader."

The NY Times' A.O. Scott also likes the remake, calling the Tony Scott-directed effort a "canny, energetic updating of the 1974 mass transit thriller, takes account of how much the character — to say nothing of the characters — of New York has changed since that almost mythic decade of decline and default." Scott also likes how the mayor, played by James Gandolfini says, "I left my Rudy Giuliani suit at home." Speaking of Tony Soprano, he was spotted heading into City Hall today.