Movie: Taken

[Munsu]

Just watched the movie and I have to say that it's completely badass. Quite a kickass movie. DVDrips have been going around for some months now, even though it just came out in theaters, so I bet quite a few of you have already seen it.

Film by Luc Benson (Léon: The Proffesional) and it stars Liam Neeson (Next of Kin, Batman Begins) who was awesome in the movie. These old actors are starting to put some cool action movies out, and I bet Liam will get better movie offers from now on.

The action was top notch, the movie was well paced, decent suspense, good drama, pretty good acting.

So, who's seen it?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0936501/

[darkshadow]

I've seen it in theaters nearly a year ago, and yeah it was completely badass.
I really liked the "you don't know me, but i'm going to find you" phonecall, and then he shows up later and says, "hey, remember my voice?" .

[TwisT]

Yeah i saw this back in October. Very kickass. I always liked Liam Neeson but after this movie he rose up on my list over "actors whose movies to look for". It was the one of the best and most surprising movies of 2008. I hadn't heard anything about this movie when the R5 came out so i wasn't expecting much. I just saw that it was a new movie with Liam Neeson and the plot sounded cool. So that was one of my best movie memory's. Also this was the closes thing to the Jason Bourne movies i have seen and i so loved those.

And yeah that phonecall was kickass. Gave me a chill down my spine. Also the action was very good, well done and high paced. And it rarely stops. It so deserved the 8.0 rating on IMDB (i actually voted a 9 if i remember right).

[Sapphire]

This is one of the best movies I've recently seen. It's safe to say that it's a 'different' sort of action movie that actually can hold the interest of the viewer without boring them.

[Penner]

When i saw the trailer i wanted to see the movie but as time went by i somehow forgot to actually see it, then i saw this thread recently and it reminded me and i just finished watching it...and it was in every way as badass as you've previously described.

Fucking brilliant piece of action

[Raven]

I'm actually a little surprised people loved it so much. I enjoyed it, but it just seemed so lame in the fact that he just killed every single person he came across with no repercussions.

I really like Liam Neeson as an actor but to me he doesn't have the badass persona this movie asked for, it would have been better suited to Bruce Willis or someone. That scene at the start when he had the BBQ with all his old friends, I just didn't buy the fact they were all such close buddies. He doesn't fit in with guys like that. And Maggie Grace from Lost should never attempt to play characters so much younger than she is in real life.

The ending was the worst. He just flies out of Paris without question after going on a killing spree? And then the family basically just says "thanks for doing that, see you round". Oh yeah, they did offer him a ride home I suppose.

Enjoyable for mindless action, but horribly miscast for that kind of film IMO.

[Ryllharu]

I have to disagree. I think if anything, the fact that Liam Neeson is generally not known as an action star made it more plausible. CIA or whatever special ops aren't supposed to look like action stars. Spies are meant to blend in and look like normal people. His character was supposed to be something like a business traveller while under cover.

It's one thing to have someone hang from a harrier jet, shoot a guy off said jet with a missle, drive a car into a helicopter, etc. It sends another message to the audience to have this older guy walking around, coldly killing people. Some of the neck breaks were a little, "Really? It didn't look like he even hit them," moments, but overall it was one or two shots in the chest, or one in the head.

As for his buddies, again, CIA are supposed to blend in. Operatives can't all be the same age, or it doesn't work. They all have to look like different walks of life in order to fit in at a certain setting. A couple of years of work with people aged 30-50 and you end up pretty close. No different from an office environment, if anything, the age gap would be less of an issue.

I did have issues with the ending though. I totally expected him to be killed in retaliation. He was doing a great job of killing everyone who had seen his face, but there was probably enough people he didn't kill to let the word out. I suppose that wouldn't have gone well with test audiences.

He didn't kill everyone, just everyone that no one would really miss. Shooting the wife though...what an asshole.

[Munsu]

He has plenty of connections to be able to leave France without a problem... don't know why that would be much of an issue, especially when he got info on higher-ups involved in the prostitution ring.

[Killa-Eyez]

I've also seen this movie for over a year ago. We got a show on every tuesday night at 21.00 PM called Sneak Preview, meaning a unkown movie that has yet to come out will be shown. That movie was shown and in the beginning the movie starts indeed like a boring drama movie and I already thought my money was down the drain. Though things started to get exciting all of a sudden and I had a blast. Great surprise element!
The best Sneak I've seen so far!

[Munsu]

So, are you guys ready for some Taken 2? I sure am.

[Animeniax]

Awesome concept for a sequel... badass agent gets paid back for all the people he killed in a previous movie. So many movies leave that element unexplored/unresolved. I think they should have called it "Taken Again" not as a play on words for rehash, but because it sounds cooler than "Taken 2."

[Animeniax]

Spoilers:


Good movie, not great. Kind of retreaded familiar ground without anything fresh and amazing. I think it was a bit of a redemption to show the daughter is not completely worthless and incapable as she did her part (better than the wife) to escape and prevail.

[Paper]

Taken 2 was gay

[Animeniax]

It wasn't that bad. It was like watching Clear and Present Danger after Patriot Games... hard to stack up to the original.

[Penner]

Aaaand herpderp, they might make Taken 3 lol

[Animeniax]

That's nuts that they greenlight a movie based solely on opening weekend box office numbers. Most people will see the movie based on hype and expectations, but when those expectations are not fulfilled, then a 3rd movie won't be something they'd go see in the theater. I think they should wait and see fan reaction to the 2nd movie. People may have paid to see it, but if they left half way through because it's not very good, then they won't see a 3rd movie. Ahh, Hollywood, is it any wonder people mock you?