'The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3' (R)(out of four)

There's no doubt that "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" is as suspenseful as careening down a railroad track in a runaway subway car. Yet, like a subway's starts and stops, sometimes Pelham sputters.

The remake of the 1974 thriller is taken up a few notches by director Tony Scott, who uses a number of techniques to make this hijack story teeth-clenching. Scott's vision of New York is a palette of different types of people, from the unknowing subway riders whose day is changed in a matter of minutes to a by-the-book hostage negotiator (John Turturro) whose heart and soul has been lost somewhere along the way. Then there's Ryder (John Travolta), the devilish-looking greed machine who takes over a train car, stalls it in the middle of the track, and holds New York City responsible for the innocent lives he'll take if he doesn't get $10 million delivered to where he's holed up underground.

There's also the unassuming Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) who just showed up for another day at work at the NASA-esque looking command center of the MTA (Metropolitan Transport Authority), and who ends up on the other end of the squawk box with a psychopath. Garber has his own demons in the closet, which Ryder is able to access by Googling his name. Welcome to the 21st century "Pelham," and the wonders of the Internet, even 18 feet below the surface.

Scott's New York is loud and noisy, the beat underneath is punctuated by hip-hop and metal music, and screeching subway rails. Above there are traffic jams, syncopated helicopters hovering over the city, and people -- lots and lots of people.

Things have changed from the 20th century "Pelham" to the 21st century version. Walter Matthau was transit cop, Lt. Garber, and Robert Shaw was Blue. Blue was demanding $1 million or he'd kill all his passengers.

The remake gives Garber a money-focused back story, which Ryder comes up with during his search of the Internet. It's a silly story that we never see, but are merely told about through Ryder's superfluous probing and a confession he squeaks out of Garber. You see, nice-guy Garber isn't just a dispatcher, but a Transit Authority executive. He's been demoted for allegedly taking a bribe from a Japanese subway car manufacturer.

Meanwhile, Ryder is some former Wall Street bigwig who has figured out that creating a terroristic havoc will also have an effect on the stock market and make him a rich man. If it all sounds complicated, it kind of is, and is only window dressing for Travolta to play demented madman and for Washington to show his chops as an unlikely hero who doesn't like the New York Yankees.

The only person we meet outside the subway story mayhem is Garber's lovingly devoted wife whose only request is that he comes home safe at the end of the day carrying a half gallon of milk. Married couples in the audience found this running joke absolutely hilarious.

The game of cat-and-mouse gets predictable monotonous as most of the action between the two men is handled over a dispatch system. Scott chose to spend his Hollywood dollars on giant explosions and police chase scenes throughout the streets of New York instead of allowing moviegoers to see some of the back stories come to life. How about a flashback of Ryder's Wall Street days or Gerber in Japan greasing the palms of a train manufacturer? It might have at given the movie more dimension.

James Gandolfini as a lame duck mayor gets to make a Rudy Giuliani joke, and the updated script takes a swipe at President George W. Bush. Despite Manhattan's current economic crisis (and the rest of the world's fiscal woes) it seems fairly easy for Gandolfini's mayor to try to meet the hijacker's demands for millions of dollars. In the older film, Tony Roberts as the mayor says: "(Expletive!) This city hasn't got a million dollars!"

There are some holes in "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," but that's not to say that you can't sit back and enjoy the ride.