Comments on: Taken: Back to Action Basics

By: Rich

Rich — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:15:25 +0000

Allen and LatexSolarBeef are spot on. Shitty, boring movie, but more watchable than the Oscar-bait.

Could have been genius if the daughter was raped and killed, considering that the film worked so hard at making her as fucking irritating as possible.

By: Hank

Hank — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:47:00 +0000

This was very fun to read!

By: Nickxon

Nickxon — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:43:50 +0000

The Exile…movie reviews? Awesome!

By: k_diggidy

k_diggidy — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:41:00 +0000

correction: “blow off some steam Bennett”

By: Carpenter

Carpenter — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:41:46 +0000

Racial stereotyping? Sure, except that almost everything produced in Hollywood shows that Black is good and White is bad, whenever there are clashing interests. Oh, those evil racists, always out to murder and terrorize. And how many White gang members have we seen in the movies now? Many more than Black gang members. And a fun trivia: there were more White murderers in the NYPD Blues show than in NY in real life, a city where Whites are the minority. Studies show that the vast majority of murderers portrayed on TV are White; remarkable in a country where Blacks commit half of all murders, and Latino gangs commit a good chunk of the rest. So, racial stereotyping? Sure. But not in the direction the media bosses and their followers say it is. As for Taken, it is okay, but it could have used a bigger budget. Nevertheless, you can watch it in an evening and not feel like you have wasted your time. Liam Neeson is one of my favorite actors, I liked that movie where he plays the founder of the IRA (the real IRA, when all of Ireland was British, not the commies that came later in Northern Ireland and parasitized on the name). And in closing, The Professional is an awesome movie.

By: k_diggidy

k_diggidy — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 09:34:43 +0000

same plot as commando. Director pays tribute to it with the steam pipe scene – “Chill out Bennett”

By: Nestor

Nestor — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:38:05 +0000

Neeson has done plenty of action roles, Star Wars, Darkman, Batman, it’s not exactly unheard of to see him in an action movie.

By: aleke

aleke — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:39:23 +0000

^What did maddox get a new column? Who gives a shit

By: abb1

abb1 — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:56:42 +0000

Aggressive misogyny and racial stereotyping – sure, but what struck me first was that this terrible place where the young girls are in grave danger, police is corrupt, and slave trade flourishes had to be Paris.

Why, of course: Le Ventre de Paris; Paris, Eurabia; what an awful place. Why couldn’t she just go to New York instead?

By: LatexSolarBeef

LatexSolarBeef — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 04:31:24 +0000

I saw this movie via The Pirate Bay a long time ago. Was kinda shocked when I saw a commercial for its impending release weeks later. Someone dropped the security ball on an early copy and it got loose into the wild.

BTW The movie sucked. Except for the part where he shot his crony’s innocent wife, to get info. That made me laugh.

By: jake1

jake1 — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 04:24:49 +0000

Its like Frantic and Payback had a baby with none of its parents charms. And come on. What kind of respectable white slavers prey on the wealthy? Any chick with enough cash for a plane ticket is going to have someone who is going to come looking for them. You’d only get away with it a few times before the wrath of god (rich people) came down on you. I know, I know. One shouldnt split hairs when it comes to action movie plots, but when the action is shot in that annoying jerky Bourne Identity-style, every little bit helps. Or hurts. All in all a C- effort from the Besson action factory

By: Allen

Allen — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 02:51:04 +0000

Eh’, I saw it a few months back on a straight to your computer release …

It seemed pretty stock build up and boring revenge mechanic. I didn’t really care what happened to anyone in the film and as usual ended up cheering for the bad guys to win, if only to relieve the boredom.

As in most action flicks, the protagonist isn’t a bad-ass, just a very, very, lucky (foolish) man in that scores of generic bad guys fortunately can’t shoot straight. That’s the cliched to-be-expected obvious; but some action flicks over come it with a sense of style … of which this film is lacking.

Still, bland white male empowerment fantasy flick > pretentious “oscar nominee” leader bathed in the colour maple and A-list actor bullshit.

By: a

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:33:41 +0000

i like how many american reviews of this movie go “oh no, torture, not working with local governments, gung-ho slaughter? we don’t do that anymore! that’s so bush administration! now that we’re with obama it’s not cool to make such awful awful awful movies.” (new yorker for example) reminds me of how german nazi children are hyper sensitive to nazi image appropriation.

By: nobody

nobody — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:26:23 +0000

Enjoyed the appraisal.

By: Zulu Kilo

Zulu Kilo — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:34:49 +0000

$24 millon.

By: Zulu Kilo

Zulu Kilo — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:28:46 +0000

I saw this movie a couple of weeks ago and found it extremely entertaining and well-made. Yes, there are problems with the storyline and it will never be remembered, but with the absolutely horrific selection of films being released since November (and probably through February), it is odd that this one gets so little attention.

Of the three “big” releases this weekend, one prominent local reviewer didn’t even bother to review this one, opting for The Uninvited ($10 million weekend estimate) and New In Town ($7 million). Taken should bring in $24. Not bad. Especially on Super Bowl weekend.

Thanks for the review.