Denzel Washington‘s shaved head and goatee look, evident on last Sunday’s Oscar show, is for Tony Scott‘s The Taking of Pelham 123, a remake of the 1974 Joseph Sargent film.
Washington apparently has Walter Mattthau‘s subway administrator role, which he probably wanted as a swing move away from his American Gangster heroin dealer. But I’d rather see him play the Robert Shaw role, which John Travolta has in actuality.
Scott can pull this and that lever and push this and that button, but this new zipped-up version will stand or fall on its own terms based on the merits of David Koepp‘s script. Peter Stone wrote the ’74 version, adpating John Godey‘s novel.
