When putting together a remake, the powers that be usually find similar actors to fill the roles once immortalized by someone else. But sometimes, we get people entirely different. As we have heard, there's a remake of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three coming our way, titled The Taking of Pelham 123. Instead of Walter Matthau, we're getting a whole different type of actor -- Denzel Washington, and now Just Jared is sharing a peek at the man in action.
123 focuses on some armed, color-named gang members who hijack a subway car in New York City and take the train hostage in hopes of collecting a sweet ransom. Lt. Zachary Garber (Washington) has to make it all happen. Methinks things aren't going too well for Z in this scene.
I like Denzel and all, and I'm sure that he'll be great, but this isn't exactly new territory for him, and seeing this, I just want me some Walter Matthau. If you're feeling the same way, head through the jump.
1. I heard Denzel on NPR with the musical director he was working with on "The Great Debaters," and he was loose and charming and funny -- and it made me realize that I could not remember a single COMEDY he'd made! I went back to IMDB and sure enough, it goes all the way back to that awful movie he made in the early 80s with George Segal, "Carbon Copy." Nothing but dramas and thrillers since. (I don't count "The Preacher's Wife," as that was more of a romance, and his role in "Much Ado About Nothing" was one of the more serious ones in the play.) But it seems to me that if Denzel wants to stretch at all, a well-written, smart comedy would be a challenging direction to go.
Posted at 2:24PM on Apr 28th 2008 by David