Word: thriller
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...note that the past three winning movies were made for peanuts, with weekend grosses that were greater or nearly as much as their respective budgets; The Hangover cost $35 million to produce, The Proposal $40 million. By next weekend, the Bullock film should outearn the Denzel Washington-John Travolta thriller, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, whose budget was about $100 million. By then Bullock's film will also exceed the theatrical earnings of Duplicity, the comeback film of Julia Roberts, Bullock's main rival over the past 15 years as Hollywood's (token) star actress...
...This weekend the insider consensus was for something like a three-way tie among The Hangover, Up and the new Denzel Washington-John Travolta subway thriller The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. According to today's estimates, that's how the movies finished - one two three - but The Hangover, at $33.4 million, was a sturdy $3 million ahead of Up and more than $8 million ahead of Pelham...
...quarterback has a few explanations. 1. While Washington and Travolta are certified stars who can get movies greenlit, they don't often make blockbusters. 2. The audience for R-rated films, necessarily limited by age, was still flocking to The Hangover. 3. Pelham is a remake of a 1974 thriller that didn't exactly acquire legendary status. 4. Though the new picture was promoted as an action thriller, it's basically two guys talking tensely on the phone - in other words, a TV movie - and without any urgency to see it, the older people who thought they might be interested...
...Written by Peter Stone from John Godey's novel and directed by Joseph Sargent, the movie mixed thriller elements with rancid comedy to create a tarnished time capsule of Gotham crime, sludge and cynicism. The mayor is a do-nothing schlemiel ("Don't tell me - I don't wanna know"), and the hijacked passengers aren't so scared that they can't give a lot of lip back to their captors. The transit hierarchy is clogged with wise guys. "What the hell do they expect for their lousy 35 cents?" one executive says of the subway hostages. "To live forever...
...city, is the center of another national trauma: the financial crisis. But the subways run so efficiently, and their lurid reputation has retreated so far, that few people complain about anything except the next fare increase. A remake of Pelham One Two Three can duplicate the 1974 film's thriller ingredients: the criminal mastermind, the clock ticking toward certain doom, the runaway train, the ordinary man tapped for a suicidal mission. It just can't locate those conventions in a milieu with any political resonance...