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53 Comments


High Kalibur says:

This movie is awesome!

That’s an outstanding review for a film I desperately want to believe in. The film is from the same director that Did “The Transporter” and the last two “offerings” (dare I even call them that?) were lacklucster at best.

I will DEFINITELY get out to see this one, based in our recommendation no less.

Cheers!

Ken J says:

The film is kind of far fetched, but my friends and I had a blast watching it. Nothing more satisfying than to watch a loving father kill half of France to find his beloved daughter. That a-hole being tortured was a nice bonus too.

“Are you focused now?” LMAO :-D

Scott Lovegrove says:

I totally agree with the review. I watched it at the cinema last year (UK) and I said at the time it was one of the best action thrillers of the year. Thought it was a very good offering.

Ken J says:

I liked the action and fighting in this a lot more than in Quantum of Solace. It was fast, but they didn’t do extreme closeups and quick angle changes like they did in QoS.

Neeson in this film is like a more believable Steven Seagal and not as fat…

The Rake says:

It’s good to see a nice 4 star review. It has a C+ on Yahoo critics, which worries me. I think the trailer is great, still on the fence with this one.
The Rake
http://thefilmnest.com

I saw this (less than legally) a few months ago (I guess it dropped overseas last year). I thought the premise was really cool and Liam Neeson was a badass, but it felt long at parts, far fetched in others. I’ll probably give it another spin when it hits bluray though.

Patrick says:

Remember Vic, he did teach Batman everything he knows.

quick update, my buddy who runs another film website (URL withheld, hi vic!) also thought this movie kicked ass.

huntthejest says:

I have been excited ever since the first trailer came out. Me and my dad were like what is this? And now that Vic’s given it the thumbs up, it looks like we’ll be catching this next weekend instead of Gran Torino(daggumit, I gotta wait for DVD on that one.)

Jess H. says:

Have been looking forward to this movie since I have seen the previews on tv. Now that I see that it has turned out pretty good, im going to see it next weekend.

Ken J says:

hunt, you can’t watch this over Gran Torino! This movie was fun to watch, but Gran Torino is BADASS. Well, I guess Gran Torino will come out on DVD before this will since that’s been out in the US for longer… Oh well, guess you gotta do what you gotta do, lol. Gran Torino is a must own DVD for me. I might pick this one up too. Probably won’t get tired of the line “I need you to be focused! … Are you focused now?” LOL, you’ll see what I mean when you watch it.

“Taken” has a bunch of great quotes.

“It’s only a flesh wound.”

“I told you I’d find you.”

“It’s personal to me.”

:-)

Vic

Ken J says:

It’s weird, because he’s such a bad ass, he knows if he wanted to he can kill you before you even know you’re being attacked, yet he’s such a timid guy to people he’s not taking down, lol.

But I guess that’s true of a lot of people in real life, they don’t have anything to prove, so they don’t try to act tough when they don’t need to.

But yah Vic, those are good ones.

“It’s only a flesh wound” I totally did not see that coming, lol. I guess you do what you have to when your daughter is on the line…

Darren seeley says:

For years on TV we had The Equalizer; the late Charles Bronson had five Death Wishes, in recent times we had seen The Limey, Chuck Norris had ‘Walker’ on TV and last year we saw the return of Rambo. Now, all of a sudden…we can’t really believe a guy in his mid to late 50’s can’t knock a few bad guys around?

I’ll guess I’ll have to see this to really know what or where you are getting with that ‘flaw’, but as of now, I don’t follow this line of logic, Vic. Unless he does something like Jason Bourne-ish where it’s something thrilling yet unrealistic.

Ken J says:

It’s kind of like Bourne, but slightly better in my opinion. In Bourne they like to do fast cuts and close ups so you can’t tell what’s going on. Basically you see Bourne flail his arms about and all of a sudden everyone around him is on the ground. Here, you see him hitting people in vital areas like the throat, groin, kidneys, etc.

Gary says:

Saw it today
I liked it a lot .
I am glad there were some quieter moments at the end.
I think the audience needed a breather.
Me too.
still,
I highly reccommend this film.

piratedan says:

Vic’s deficiencies were right on, it’s a bit of a stretch that the bad guys can never shoot straight or the amount of collateral damage going on with little or no repurcussions, but it is brainier than most of the usual action fare where the good guy does have to connect the dots and uses his wherewithal to do so.

@Darren

Don’t get me wrong, I loved this movie. But having Neeson repeatedly taking out rooms full of young bad guys who you’d think could defend themselves pretty well was just a bit over the top.

Then again I suppose you could say he had the element of surprise on his side. :-)

I’ve seen it twice now and I loved it both times. To me this is a repeater, like the Die Hard movies.

Vic

Ken J says:

Well, even in real life, it has more to do with training than your age or anything physical. Like the last guy he fought, sure you can look at it as simply a movie formula where the final person is the hardest, like a “boss fight” in a game, or you can look at it in that the guy he fought at the end was the head of security for that rich guy so he also have received top notch training and experience in order to qualify for that job. So even though Mills can take down other people twice this guy’s size in about 5 seconds, it takes much longer for him since he is almost equally trained.

I don’t think it’s too far fetched to see a brawl go down that way if you put a CIA field agent up against a bunch of idiot thugs.

Not to mention, Liam Neeson is a pretty big dude… And like Patrick said, he did teach Batman everything he knows… :-P

Gary says:

Vic ,
They just edited out the part where he rose out of The Lazarus Pit with the strength of 20 men!

coffee says:

“Taken” demonstrates the fact that movies can foster a lot of awareness about issues in the world — in this case: human-trafficking

huntthejest says:

If Batman could do it, surely his teacher should have no problem.

huntthejest says:

As long as Darth Maul doesn’t show up.

I really liked the film. It was like sitting in a theater in the 80’s and watching a Charles Bronson movie. I thought the first 40 minutes were they set up his character was really well done. Yes, there are plot holes but over all Neeson was great and the film for its genre is a winner!

Chuck

Jason Charles says:

Awesome movie!

Bill Blume says:

Vic, thanks for posting this review. I like Liam Neeson, and this film definitely has me interested. Now, if I can just get to a movie theater to see it!

Cali says:

I agree almost completely with the review. Absolutely loved the movie and I thought the action sequences were great. The one thing I kind of wanted to nit pick at on the review s is the fact that yes some of it was a stretch and a bit over the top for a normal man to accomplish BUUUUUT it was not over the top or even remotely pushing it when we put it into the context of a hollywood action movie. He didn’t really make any desperate moves that defied the laws of nature (well except maybe the long jump on to the boat) so in that context I realyl believe it was just a fantigittytastic® movie.

Ken J says:

Well, that “roll” he did as he landed was supposed to dissipate some of the energy from the fall. The way they teach you to land from a relatively high jump is different in real life, but the concept is the same.

Lob Taylor says:

Not a bad flick actually. though i think the whole loneliness ,am all there for my daughter , i’ll give up my life and mope around my grown daughter i wasnt there for ,was more than a tad overdone.

you’ll notice parallels to Man on Fire , but yeah overall a nice flick

High Kalibur says:

I think the fact that all we can do is ‘nit pick’ at the movie being a ‘bit’ of a stretch is an acknowledgement of its awesomeness.

I don’t see the problem everyone is having with Liam Neeson being a highly skilled combatant? The film tells us, literally, that he has a particular set of skills acquired over a long career that make him a nightmare for scumbags. In the First Act is becomes evident that he is not rusty.

An actual flash back of him younger or something like that would have been counterproductive to the flow of the film and completely unnecessary.

I found this action to be a lot more credible then James Bond… any James Bond. Definetly more realistic then Live Free or Die Hard. Someone help me out with a recent major action film that could be compared to this one…?

I’ve seen it twice already, this film accomplishes everything it sets out to do. The writing, directing, acting and choreography are fantastic. In truth, I think it was kind of short, I definitely wasn’t getting tired of the well crafted action scenes.

I’m sure we will be seeing a lot more quality films from this director, Pierre Morel.

And… of course… Liam Neeson is awesome! As a matter of fact… this is one of my favorite movies!

Ken J says:

Casino Royale’s hand to hand combat is definitely far more realistic than this. People are more resiliant than you think, a lot can even take a concussion and stay conscious, much less get knocked out by a few punches. Casino Royale showed this in the bathroom fight scene, where it took Bond beating and beating and beating and beating the guy and he was still alive, lol. But I liked this film too because it does show him going for key points in the body.

“I believe you, but it’s not going to save you” lol

Jake says:

Great review. I was equally positive in my review of it at MyMovieSpot.BlogSpot.com.

Ashley says:

I thought this was was pretty good.

lilly says:

taken is so cool i love it its amazing
i llllloooooovvvvveeee it
whoooooooooo
can wait to get the dvd

zibe says:

yeah the things that this man is able to do with his connections is amazing, and a bit unrealistic. that is the point though. The movie is meant to reach out to anybody with paternal or maternal instincts. This movie is a visual depiction of what every persons says they would do if they lose a love due to a kidnapping or murder or any other unspeakable crime in which a person harms one of our own loved ones. I personally loved the movie seen it twice on screen and will buy the dvd.

Ken J says:

Well zibe, he WAS in the CIA, so perhaps he does have those sort of connections, lol. They do make a living out of tracking people down. Some people are just harder to find, especially when you are forced to follow law and protocol, but he didn’t have to abide by any of that so he had free reign to exercise any skill he had.

Antony says:

You know, if there ever was a REAL candidate for a Final Fight style sidescrolling beat-em-up based on a movie, TAKEN is the one. After the movie takes off and the hero’s goal is clear, it’s an endless beat’em’up.

Liam Neeson’s presence is what gives this far-fetched action yawn with paper-thin characters any kind of “credibility”. This is DTV material, and his sole presence (alongside Famke Janssen) is what makes it look like a “proper” movie.

I could see this starring Steven Seagal and released on DVD, with very few things changed.

Still, this is a very enjoyable mindless beat’em’up, and an actor like Liam Neeson makes it more than watchable. To his credit, if any lesser actor was playing in the role, we would never believe one second of it.

Don’t take it as a film that properly talks about its serious subject matter – it’s a beat em up.

Ken J says:

Anthony, while I agree with you for the most part, I wouldn’t belittle the movie down to Steven Seagal. Sure it was just nonstop carnage for most of the film, but the violence in the movie is slightly more BELIEVABLE (I said believable, not realistic per-se) than with most movies of this type. Plus the motivation for his rampage makes it so satisfying to watch, which makes it a great watch in my opinion.

Antony says:

Yeah, the movie is certainly better looking than any Seagal epic, free of their most ridiculous (yet, entertaining in a different way) aspects (like the “This guy is good” speeches some villains say about Seagal’s character in a movie), but it just felt one-dimensional, pedestrian and a bit superficial (when it comes to writing, especially considering the very serious subject of trafficking/modern slavery). Neeson’s presence saves it and makes the audience “care” a bit about this father that wants to save his girl (because Neeson has the acting chops to convince you, not the script). Still, entertaining and solid adventure, I didn’t say it was bad, a well filmed beat’em up featuring a great actor, but nothing that can stay with you after it’s over. :)

Ken J says:

Very interesting points you brought up jokfeer. After some deliberation, I would have to conclude that I agree with almost everything you just said…

Ken J says:

I agree with lovestory, I think…

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