Taken [Blu-ray]
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Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: Blu-ray
Brand: TCFHE
EAN: 0024543554691
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Item Dimensions: 20
Label: 20th Century Fox
Languages: EnglishOriginal LanguageSpanishOriginal LanguageFrenchOriginal LanguageEnglishSubtitledFrenchSubtitledSpanishSubtitledFrenchDubbedSpanishDubbed
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
MPN: FOXBR2255469
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Region Code: 1
Release Date: May 12, 2009
Running Time: 93 minutes
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
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Editorial Review:Product Description:Genre: Action/Adventure
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 12-MAY-2009
Media Type: Blu-Ray
Amazon.com:What could be a skillful but ordinary action flick gets a surprising emotional heft from the presence of Liam Neeson as the hero. Bryan Mills (Neeson) has given up his career as a spy to form a relationship with his estranged teenage daughter--but when, on a trip to Paris, she's kidnapped by slavers, Mills uses all his connections and skills to turn the city of lights upside down and rescue her. Like most of the movies that writer/producer Luc Besson has a hand in (such as
La Femme Nikita,
The Transporter,
Unleashed, and many other French action movies),
Taken drips with lurid violence (a bit toned-down to get a PG-13 rating, but there's still plenty of it), deranged sentimentality, and stereotypes of all kinds. But this doesn't stop his movies from being effective thrill-rides, and
Taken is no exception.
Taken pays just enough attention to the illusion of procedure--making it seem like Mills knows all the right steps to track down his daughter--that the movie cheerfully seduces your suspension of disbelief, despite many plot holes and scenes where Mills doesn't get scratched despite bullets flying in all directions or pretends to be a French policeman despite not speaking French or even adopting a French accent. What holds it all together is Neeson; his gravitas and emotional availability make his character--the usual action fantasy of impossible competence and righteous fury--somehow seem real and relatable.
--Bret Fetzer Stills from Taken (Click for larger image)
Average Rating:
Rating:
-
The tension will be heightened if you watch Hostel 1 before watching this movie and 13 Tzameti informs the local color of the Parisian underbelly. This is an entertaining as well as useful cautionary tale. Watch it with your high school age children.
Rating:
-
The movie doesn't have a complicated plot or deep, dynamic characters. That said, it's quite a good watch for what it is. It's primarily a revenge thriller and it does that job quite well. The burning need for retribution is an extremely powerful force in the human psyche and this movie plays on that emotion quite effectively. It's not a movie that I want to keep, but I really enjoyed it for an evening watch.
Rating:
-
Liam Neeson shares a trait that all great actors possess - they can do something completely ridiculous and remain entirely believable. If you're watching Patrick Stewart play Jean-Luc Picard on "Star Trek - Next Generation," you're watching an actual Star Fleet captain rather than a ham actor over-acting on a cheesy set. If you're watching Sigourney Weaver in "Alien," you're watching Ripley take on the universe's most dangerous monster rather than an actress dancing with a rubber suit. If you're watching Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada," you're watching an egotistical editor of a fashion magazine, not a drama queen emoting for effect.
From "Darkman" to "Star Wars" to "Taken," Neeson has always remained believable and compelling no matter how ridiculous his surroundings or god-awful the dialogue.
In "Taken," we have to believe that Bryan Mills (Neeson) is a lethal espionage/security guy, one of the best in the world, whose dedication to the job cost him his family. Too late, he realized his error and quit so he can live in unemployed drudgery and snatch a few moments here and there with his cherished daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace). Bryan's ex, Lenore (Famke Jannsen, in a thankless role), has custody of Kim and has remarried a sugar daddy who is actually a better person than Lenore. Kim desperately pleads with Bryan to let her go to Paris with her friend Amanda to tour museums. Bryan reluctantly consents, going against his better instincts that his 17-year old baby is going to a dangerous place and is not ready for it.
Unfortunately, Bryan is right - within minutes of landing in Paris, things go horribly, horribly wrong. If you saw the trailer for "Taken," you know that the movie is about Bryan's hunt for Kim across the Parisian underworld.
This is where "Taken" takes flight in a "Bourne Ultimatum" kind of way. There is virtually no character development - the question is whose arm Bryan will break (or worse) as he hunts for his daughter, and how efficiently he'll do it. Like Jason Bourne, Bryan Mills is not an acrobatic martial artist who will jump, twirl, and kick for dramatic effect - he'll rip your ears off and snap your legs with economic fury. He's not doing it to be cool. He's doing what he needs to do to get his daughter back.
Woe betide any man or woman who gets in his way. "Taken" strings together a preposterous chain of events that could never happen in a gazillion years, but you won't have time to figure that out until after the movie is over. For 90-odd minutes, you'll be taken on a compelling thrill ride, courtesy of Neeson and team.
Full disclosure - while this movie owes an obvious debt to the "Bourne" franchise as far as the feel and look of the film is concerned, it is considerably darker in both subject matter and tone. This is far from a feel-good movie - you get the sense there are no winners here.
Rating:
-
We're at the tail end of this actor playing hard-hitting action roles in his career. Liam delivers and was believable as the retired CIA operative-turned-revenge-filled-protective-father. A good Father's Day film, or simply a good movie to scare the crap out of your little girl before she goes off to college or on a European vacation...
Rating:
-
1st of all i love this movie. It was so great how Liam Neeson played his character. Some people might not like this movie but i did. I thought that any man that would go through all that just to save his daughter is the best dad ever. He was smart and he knew his way around a gun like no other. This movie touched me right to my core because i know about human trafficking. (I don't do business in it). But i have researched it and i feel bad for the hundreds of young people who get themselves wrapped up in it.
Copyright ©2003, Mark Carey.
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