my week at the movies: ‘The Taking of Pelham 123,’ ‘The Proposal’

Slow week this week. Hopefully that means I can get some catching up in on DVDs I must watch and review, reviews I need to write for films I’ve already seen, maybe a bit of sleep...

If they were gonna remake a classic from the 1970s -- and I’m not suggesting they should have -- and they were gonna remake this one, why on Earth didn’t they change the title? I know, I know: the whole point of remaking a movie is that it has built-in name recognition, and that gets lost if the title is changed. But even New Yorkers don’t call the No. 6 train (which has its northern terminus in the Bronx at Pelham Bay Park) the “Pelham line.” Maybe they did in the 70s -- I dunno. But certainly not today. But think of all the other cool titles The Taking of Pelham 123 (opens in the U.S. on June 12, and in the U.K. on July 24) could have been redubbed with: Deep Six. Bronx Bomber. The El to Hell.

The Proposal (opens in the U.S. on June 19, and in the U.K. on July 22) is a Touchstone film, which means Disney, which means -- because I’m on Disney’s shitlist at the moment -- that I’m not even gonna bother asking them for a screening. But there are public sneak previews taking place this coming Saturday night, so I’ll attend one of those. Because there’s nothing more fun than spending a Saturday night surrounded by Sandra Bullock fans.