The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3

(15, 101 mins, Sony Pictures, DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99).

Stars: Denzel Washington, John Travolta, John Turturro, James Gandolfini, John Benjamin Hickey, Luis Guzman, Victor Gojcaj

WALTER Garber (Washington) is a New York City subway system dispatcher confronted by nightmare when criminal mastermind Ryder (Travolta) and his associates Phil (Guzman) and Bashkim (Gojcaj) hold a carriage full of terrified commuters hostage and demand a $10m ransom. Walter reluctantly accepts the role of hostage negotiator, conversing with Ryder via the train’s two-way radio system, while lead police investigator Camonetti (Turturro) tries to delay paying the ransom.

This action-packed remake of the 1974 thriller starring Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw, falls back on the slam-bang, slow motion set-pieces that have become director Tony Scott’s trademark. The testosterone-fuelled revamp lacks the tension of the original film, keeping the two leads apart for more than an hour as Ryder and Walter spar verbally over the radio.

Sorority Row

(15, 96 mins, E1 Entertainment, DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Stars: Briana Evigan, Rumer Willis, Leah Pipes, Audrina Patridge, Matt O’Leary, Carrie Fisher

JESSICA (Pipes), queen bee of the sorority presided over by Mrs Crenshaw (Fisher), and her house sisters decide to teach Garret (O’Leary), a lesson by convincing him that he has killed Megan (Patridge) during a party by slipping her a date rape drug. The prank turns sour and Megan is killed for real by Garret. Several months later, the girls receive a chilling picture text, apparently from Megan. One by one, they are stalked by a killer in a black graduation robe in this competent remake of the 1983 slasher The House On Sorority Row.