Taken

[Fuel The Fire]

very good movie! if you havent seen it you should go check it out. the action is pretty good and good story line.
about a retired cia man and his daughter is kid napped in france. Reminds me of the marine but way better

 

[Dave]

We got it in the UK a long while before those in the US got it. I went to the pictures went to see it and wasn't disappointed. Great movie. Neason at his best. It's unfortunate that we're not gonna see a perfomance from him on this quality for a while. The plot is absolutely solid and was engrossing from start to finish.

Just so you know, it is "Taken". I actually thought that you were gonna talk about Tekken, the game. Hi-ho!

 

[Razor]

I assume you mean Taken. As in, his daughter was taken by bad guys and Neeson goes to kick some major ass.

In that case, it was a great movie. I was a little apprehensive about it until i saw the 3 minute commercial one night on TV. That 3 minutes made me wanna see it. ..And Neeson kicking so much ass in one movie was well worth it.

Because of this I want to see his next movie. The one he was filming around the time his wife died. It's not an action film, but still. Should be great.

 

[Dave]

Had he finished shoting the movie before his wife died? If not, I can see this movie being quite bad. I mean, his head would have been in bits. I think he is a talented actor but I think he excels in action movies and I can't see me going to his new movie if it isn't an action. Especially if he is not giving it 100%.

 

[Carter121]

I have seen this movie about five times already. It is just that fucking good. Im not going to lie, when I found out that LIAM NEESON was going to be in an ACTION flick, I had my questions. This guy was pushing fifty and wasn't exactly in Rob Roy shape if you know what I mean. However, when I saw this film, he fucking proved me wrong and killed everyone, literally. I recommend this film to anyone.

 

[X]

Yeah, it was decent. Average I'd say at best. Nothing spectacular, nothing we haven't seen ten thousand times before from every kidnapping movie ever as well as every single Luc Besson film ever.

Nice popcorn flick though, good way to kill an hour and a half. Nothing more, nothing less.

And the film was definately made before Neeson's wife died, the movie was already in theaters when his wife died.

 

[jmt225]

Yeah, I agree with X, it was a nice little movie, but nothing spectacular.

The kidnapping of the girl and how all that went down was very creative and original, but it didn't matter because they gave it away in the trailer and commercials on TV. And after that, like X said... it's nothing we haven't seen before. However, at the same time, you don't get tired of seeing films like this. They're very fun.

Taken is nothing compared to the Bourne franchise, in my opinion, but it was still enjoyable overall.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

I loved this movie. I'm a fan of Liam Neeson as well, but had never really seen him in an action movie sort of capacity. I've seen 'Schindler's List', 'K19: The Widowmaker', 'Star Wars: Phantom Menace', and 'Batman Begins' and save the training sessions and one other fight in Batman Begins, i'd never seen him in any kind of action role.

Then i heard about 'Taken' and read about who's in it etc. and was a bit put off.

Liam Neeson - retired CIA man (could he pull this off?)
Maggie Grace - his kidnapped daughter (who is apparently 17, when Grace is 23!!! But then watshername who plays Nancy in Hollyoaks, she's 26!!! Also, Grace pissed me right off playing Shannon in 'Lost' so...)
Famke Jansen - Ex-wife (well Famke Jansen is good and was damn hot in Goldeneye, but that was literally a decade ago so......)

But then a reliable source (a mate) said it was good, so my gf and i rented it and loved it. There's 2 scenes in particular.

The first is where he pretends to be the French Policeman in order to infiltrate the kidnappers, and the second is where he goes to his contact's house and threatens him to gain more information.

"You think that because we are immigrants, you can exploit us?"
"No, i think because you're breaking the law that i can exploit you. Drugs trafficking, prostitution, kidnapping. Take your pick gentleman. You come to this country, take advantage of the system and you think that because we are tolerant that we are weak and helpless. Your arrogance offends me, and the rate just went up another 10%."

Shortly afterwards all hell breaks loose, but it was great to watch this guy who's literally flashed nothing more than a piece of card with a Frenchman's name on it, walked in and managed to talk with such conviction that a room full of scumbags are humbled and co-operating within 3 minutes. Another 3 minutes go by, and he's single-handedly killed like 15 guys.

"Sitting behind a desk has made you lazy. You've forgotten things. Like the weight in the hand of a gun that's loaded and one that's not." (and then he shoots Jean Claude's wife in the arm, after she literally just served him dinner!!!!! Classic!)

"That's just a flesh wound. But if you don't get me what i need, the last thing you will see before i make your children orphans, is the bullet i put between her eyes" (dinner still steaming on the dining room table).

 

[TheOneBigWill]

While this is definitely a movie I plan on purchasing, I wouldn't call it the end-all, be-all to great action/kidnap films. You have up and down situations in this movie.

As far as the up side goes, it's pretty straight forward with next to no drag-on, dead scenes. It's pretty much a roller-coaster action flick of one good scene after another as far as Neeson's character goes chasing relentlessly after his kidnapped Daughter.

Of course, being the movie critic I try to be - I can find bad in almost any movie.

For starters, I don't give a shit how much training you have - it's hard to sit down and take into account that a 45-50+ year old man is going to go Rambo/James Bond on all of these younger, quicker thugs. Yes, typically thugs are stupid - but in real (real that is) life, thugs aren't exactly this stupid - I wouldn't imagine, anyways. So to sit back and believe this 45-50+ year old man is going to go through all of this, tracking down his Daughter, etc.. including one scene in which he's pretty much a dead man and ends up lucky because thugs in movies = ******ed morons who don't know to just fucking kill someone out right.. it just gets hard to believe.

The other hard case to swallow is the fact that he's more or less eluding the entire French Police force. Now to me, I'm almost sure American made movies will forever more make the French look like morons and idiots.. but that doesn't mean you should do it this much.. especially when the "head" (in this case, his former best friend who "sits behind a desk now") knows exactly why he's there - and what he's capable of - yet doesn't instantly act on this and take him down, earlier.

Finally - this is just the sadistic side of me.. I always say this for every action, drama, horror, "killer" movie I watch. If I'm the bad guy, and I know the "good guy" has made it all that way.. I'm not fucking around with dialog, I'm just killing whatever he's chased so hard to get to. The fat guy at the end of the movie ASSUMED that despite Neeson working his way through a boat full of guards, that HE'D be safe and live by holding his fucking Daughter hostage. Uhm.. why? Just slit her throat and be done with it.

Hey - the important thing to know is if you're going to die (keep in mind, you're evil) you might as well kill what's important to him, along the way down. I never see movies like that, mainly because it'd be horrible endings for most people - but it'd make me slightly at least see it as more realistic.

Ala - Regardless, I'm bashing by this point and there truly IS - NO GOOD REASON for it. The movie was truly great, and it's well worth watching, as well as purchasing. I'll be doing so when I can.