Taken

[Frogacuda]

I heard some good things from people about Taken, it has an 8.0 on imdb, and it's from the writer of Leon, so I decided to give it a shot. I was in the mood for a popcorn flick.

But this movie is SO FUCKING BAD, it just made me squirm in my seat with embarrassment. The acting is abominable, more on account of the shitty dialog than anything else. Every line is crammed with awkward exposition, trying to move the plot along with some incredibly cornball plot that no one could buy into.

Here's the premise (and I'm not going to even get into spoiler territory, just the set up): A former secret agent is divorced, and his wife remarried to some cardboard portrayal of a rich dude. He buys his 17 year old daughter a karaoke machine for her birthday (because she wants to be a singer), and the rich dude buys her a pony.

He then decides to take a job offered to him for $25,000 to be security for a pop star for one night. There's no mention of why this pop star doesn't have her own security or why anyone would pay that much for one night. It's obviously only important because... the pop star gets attacked by a dude with a knife! The guy has no apparent motive and disappears from the movie shortly after he's punched in the face by Neeson. The grateful pop star gives him the name of her vocal coach and manager out of gratitude. What luck!

Anyway, the daughter takes a trip to France with a friend. As soon as they get there, the two of them are kidnapped by a white slavery ring. This organization used to traffic junkies from third world former-Soviet countries, but now they just decided it's easier to hang out at the airport and kidnap American girls, because that couldn't possibly complicate things. It's ok, though, because the French government is aware of this and covering it up. We don't know why, I guess they're just dicks.

Anyway, from here on in, Neeson just conveniently finds everything he needs within 3 seconds of showing up somewhere and kills everyone. Example: He suspects there was a spotter at the airport, so he goes to the airport and sees the dude within 3 seconds. He goes to a place where there's streetwalkers and spies on a pimp. Within 3 seconds he's like "Let's go back to our hideout at [insert address]."

The action is choppy and shitty too.

Goddamn waste of my time. Fuck you if you liked this movie.

[Rumpy]

I want(ed) to see this movie.

[cka]

it feels better if you think of him as jack bauer, the daughter as kim, and the terrorists/arabs/whatever the fuck as mountain lions

I still think it's a pretty cool movie though, especially in 720p (hooray for north america getting it well behind the rest of the world)

[Despair]

FUCK THE HATERS. Seriously FUCK YOU. Don't be a pretentious prick.

This movie was a fucking BLAST. Yes, its not the tightest story ever, but its a GOD DAMN FINE tense ACTION movie. It does everything right, and as it was said it gives us closest Jack Bauer impersonation on the big screen we can get without Keifer getting involved. I mean, really, is it hard to enjoy an action revenge flick without need to over analyze how its impossible to happen in real world?

What works for it and elevates it on the better plane is Neeson performance. He really brings class as father on the path of revenge and without him, this would have been much worser film.

While it is a bit slow at the opening, once the daughter gets abducted, it goes into the overdrive, and doesnt let go until the end. Action wise, it gives competently shot and staged action, that WE CAN ACTUALLY FOLLOW. No really, in this day and age is a fucking accomplishment. Fights, are fast and brutal, seeing Neeson dispatch roomful of baddies in professional, tactical, and even somewhat believable way is exhilarating. LOL @ choppy action comment, you KNOW SHIT about action films if you make comments like this.

Unfortunately this film is getting butchered by Fox on US release, with lots of cuts to fit PG13 bill I have international cut, and even if that would also be a PG13, it pushes rating to its limits.

[Frogacuda]

FUCK THE HATERS. Seriously FUCK YOU. Don't be a pretentious prick.

What's pretentious about what I'm saying? It was a clumsy, clumsy movie. The dialog was bad, the story was bad, the action was bad, and there was not one single moment in it that resonated on any kind of emotional level. There is zero tension, everything works out perfect by magic every time.

It's terrible. Not because it isn't "smart" or "artsy" but because it's incredibly poorly written, directed, and acted. Neeson is a talented dude, but this was a Keanu-calibur performance for him.

If it was stupid but awesome like Commando, that'd be fine. It wasn't. It was stupid and flat. And yes, I saw the international cut.

[Klonoa]

i thought Taken was a fine action film. Loved it.

And Neeson kicked ass in it.

[Jetman]

Yeah, fuck you, Frog. You have some weird taste in what you do and dont like about movies.

Im with Despair. I had fun watching this, and Neeson owns some faces towards the end.

You ever consider the fact that maybe you just dont like action movies anymore and have outgrown the genre? My dad just cant watch any action movies and is constantly complaining about everyone he sees.He's gotten to the point where all he can sit through are drama's and chick flicks. I feel bad for you if you've fallen into the same boat...

[Frogacuda]

You ever consider the fact that maybe you just dont like action movies anymore and have outgrown the genre?

Nope, I have no problem with action movies, but for some reason a lot of people have this attitude that there's no such thing as a bad action movie. People have done this with horror movies for a long time and now I see this "Well it's an action movie, all it has to have is bodies in it to be good" attitude. "OMG did you see how much ass he kicked?" even if it was badly coreographed and shot and strung around a laughably bad story.

I watched this movie because I was in the mood for a popcorn action flick. That's all I wanted out of it. It was TERRIBLE. I mean really, I didn't even mention half of the plot holes. It's incoherent it's so bad.

[Nirvana]

Is Taken out early in some places? I only show one theater near me planning to show it right now and that doesn't start until Jan 30th.

[Jetman]

Is Taken out early in some places?

Yeah, in those same places where stuff is always released early (wink,wink)

Nope, I have no problem with action movies, but for some reason a lot of people have this attitude that there's no such thing as a bad action movie.

There are a ton of bad action movies out there (out of recent ones Ive seen Bangkok Dangerous and Mummy 3 come to mind).Maybe thats the problem is our standards have dropped a bit. I dont know. I honestly didnt think this one was too bad, and usually Im fairly critical of a lot of stuff. Guess you're just way more critical than a few of us here is all.