Its many years since I have seen and enjoyed the original 1974 version and wondered what this one would be like. It turns out it is fine, maybe not as gritty and grubby as the first but suitably suspenseful and totally engaging. I was feeling tired and feared my eyes might droop but no problem, this kept me wide awake. I think the rather flashy switches from the hostage negotiations to shots of the streets with cars swerving, crashing in to each other and tumbling over was unnecessary and only towards the end when we are fully involved in the on street activity do these sequences work. For the most part the dialogue carries the action and Denzel Washington and John Travolta give extremely solid performances to convince and hold our attention throughout tense and exciting movie.