The Taking of Pelham 123 (1998)

I hadn’t felt particularly compelled to watch this, but saw that it would possibly be leaving Hoopla’s catalog in December and decided to check it out while I had the chance. It’s obviously a much lesser budget version than the other two versions I’ve seen, which isn’t surprising since it’s a made in Canada TV movie. Story-wise, it stays very close to the original film. Unfortunately visually, it is a relic of its era looking like it was filmed with a low quality camcorder, shaky and gritty. I appreciate that they changed genders with some of the mid-level characters to create some balance, though they lost some of that goodwill by having the sole moment of bonding between two of them by throwing in a motherhood sob story. While not an awful remake, it’s probably best to just stick with the original and ignore the later two.