Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) thought today was going to be like any other day. The disgruntled New York transit employee was going to go through the motions, make sure each subway train made it to where they were supposed to go whether there was trouble or not. But then he got that call from Pelham 123 and now he’s speaking to some guy named Ryder (John Travolta) with a ‘y’ and everything has changed. Today is definitely not going to be like any other day.

Denzel Washington rises to the challenge in Sony Pictures' The Taking of Pelham 123

A remake of the 1974 Joseph Sargent (MacArthur) semi classic, Tony Scott’s (Déjà vu, Top Gun) The Taking of Pelham 123 is actually a pretty darn fine movie. For the last few months I’ve been doing all I can top bad mouth this one, calling it pointless and using every other disparaging remark in my verbal arsenal that I could come up with.

The reality is that they are very different movies and, if anything, as much as I like the 1974 original this one might be just an infinitesimal amount better. Neither are masterpieces, but both are entertaining, Scott’s upping the ante (if only just minutely) and having a gravitas the Walter Matthau/Robert Shaw flick never was able to manufacture.

It helps immensely that both Washington (who has done excellent work for Scott on numerous occasions) and Travolta infuse the material with more emotional resonance than it actually deserves. Where both Matthau and Shaw were obviously having a blast riffing against type and earning a paycheck (that last scene between the two of them is something special), this pair is actually taking Brian Helgeland’s (L.A. Confidential) screenplay seriously, treating the entire plot structure as if it were worthy of multiple Oscars including one for Best Picture.

It’s not, of course, this new version of author John Godey’s original story arguably even more silly now than when it was when first published three-plus decades ago. How is Travolta’s villain ever going to get away with any of this? Why is he such a disgruntled maniac? Why does Washington’s hero feel so compelled to stand up to him mano-a-mano? These questions and more aren’t exactly answered as they are taken for granted, and if a viewer ponders them too long it goes without saying that their head might just explode from the conundrums posed by them all.

My response to all that nonsense? So what. This new The Taking of Pelham 123 is a crackerjack thriller pulsating with a glossy energy uniquely its own. Sure it doesn’t have the urgency of the original, but it makes up for it with sheer giddy enthusiasm. More than that, the action (well, 85-percent or so of it at any rate) is born directly out of the plot progression, nothing that happens feeling false right from the word go.

There is a car chase I could have done without, and all the stuff between Washington and his wife feels like unnecessary filler the studio decided needed to be tacked on in order to give the film an extra amount of emotional weight. But the central storyline resonates, and even thought both actors could do these roles in their sleep they gift them with an honest practicality that's authentic and unaffected.

In the end, I guess I need to apologize. I’ve been calling Tony Scott’s The Taking of Pelham 123 many derogative things, urging everyone I know to avoid it like the plague sight unseen. That was wrong, and as a fair-minded critic I should know better. The reality is that this is a good action movie, sometimes even a great one, and as cinematic heists go this is one thriller that made me sit up and take notice.