Here’s a remake of a 1974 movie. That tells you the studio isn’t looking for something new or innovative and wants to try and cash in on a prior success with a new generation of movie goers. Let’s take everyman Denzel Washington and put him in an extraordinary circumstance and see if he succeeds or fails. The story is not bad and the script is decent. The characters are well crafted and the performances solid. Denzel plays the ordinary guy kind of like Clark Kent. He even has the glasses. You get the feeling early on he has some super hero in him and in the end he performs well beyond the powers of mortal men. John Travolta is the antagonist and he seems to relish playing bad guys. Too much is never enough when you’re the bad guy and he goes over the top from the beginning. The only problem is when you try to make an anti-social personality sympathetic. Don’t try to make him more complicated with some noble motives or back story elements that made him this way. Technically the crisis intervention stuff was fairly accurate. John Turturro plays a police negotiator who coaches Denzel and it’s apparent someone gave the writers advice in this area. Would that the continuity folks and tactical team advisors were able to assert themselves a bit more. No SWAT team member or tactical operator is going to ‘accidently’ discharge their weapon because a sewer rat bites them. Fingers are nowhere near the trigger until the decision to shoot is made. Especially snipers whose main job is observing and reporting.The other glaring mistake in continuity is when Denzel is shown a Walther PPK and told how to work the safety. This weapon is a hidden gun he can access if things go wrong. Well of course they do and he pulls out what is clearly a Kahr pistol that has no safety at all. OK, I might be one of the few who would notice that, but it takes me out of the movie and it’s hard to get back into it. Most folks will think this a decent drama with solid performances by the cast. A typical formula movie where the the ordinary guy becomes a hero and the bad guys get what they deserve. And the original 1974 movie? Pretty much the same. Walter Matthau is the good guy and Robert Shaw is the bad guy. Interesting to watch just for the 1970’s clothing and dialog. I wish the studios would greenlight more original productions, but they’re in business to make money, not take risks for Art’s sake. We the public need to support independent films and we might see the bigger studios follow suit.