We’ve had our say here at the Screengrab, and we still can’t come up with any compelling reason to remake The Taking of Pelham 123, particularly with Tony Scott at the controls. But then again, we don’t work for the New York subway system. If we did, we might feel a sense of pride at seeing our gleaming jewel of public transport take center stage, even if it’s for the purpose of criminal mayhem at the hands of porky John Travolta and his irredeemable facial hair.

Tony Scott isn’t much for the subway, but “he had been adamant from the time he joined the project that he would do it only if he could film as much of it as possible inside the actual New York subway system,” according to the New York Times. So yes, Scott’s film will offer up the expected pyrotechnics, ear-splitting soundtrack and slice-and-dice editing, but hey – you’ll also get up close and personal with the Flushing line at Grand Central Terminal.

Times writer Randy Kennedy signals his surrender at attempting to make Pelham sound like an actual good movie by offering this consolation prize: “But for anyone who has spent time past a turnstile, one of its chief attractions will also undoubtedly be how devoted it is to the look and feel of the subway and how well it pulls it off. In early reviews since the trailer was released on the Internet, even the most bloodthirsty critics — New York City subway buffs — have had a few nice things to say.”

It’s not as if the guardians of the subway line have ever had high standards when it comes to script approval. ““We thought, “This is our movie — it’s about New York City Transit — and we really wanted it look great,”’ said Alberteen Anderson, director of film and special events for M.T.A. New York City Transit, whose office has helped arrange several complex subway shoots, often to see the movies made from them, like Money Train and The Cowboy Way, end up as clunkers.”

I think I hear another clunker pulling into in the station.