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Massawyrm gets all sorts of excited for the new revenge thriller TAKEN!!
Hola all. Massawyrm here.
Holy shit on a shingle, January ended early this month. In what is traditionally the cinematic dumping ground of this half of the year, FOX has put out one hell of a badass revenge-action flick with the Liam Neeson led, Luc Besson Co-written TAKEN. It is a Spartan, no frills, no holds barred, ball buster of a film that makes no apologies and takes no prisoners. It simply beats ass.
If this were 1968, this movie would star Michael Caine and be just as bad ass. You feel me? If ever there was a modern film that evoked the same kind of nihilistic, cold blooded ethos of 60’s era crime films – especially the mod era British crime films – without deliberately trying hard to do so, this is it. Bryan Mills is a nice enough guy. You kind of like him. But there’s clearly something wrong with him. He seems to cling a little too much to the life he missed out on when he worked “for the government.” But when his daughter is kidnapped in a random act of violence, a switch flips – and the old Bryan, a Bryan we are about to be more acquainted with, comes out. And he is not a very nice man at all.
Quite the contrary. This film dispenses with a lot of the usual pleasantries, only teasing us with a bit of foreplay before jumping in and kidnapping Bryan’s daughter. But the moment that happens, the film begins playing a kind of hardball you aren’t used to. Here is a father on the phone with his daughter, coldly, almost brutishly telling her “you’re going to be taken.” Then he tells her what he needs her to do for him, because Daddy coming. And daddy is going to fuck up every mother fucker who so much as pauses his search for his little girl.
TAKEN is a film that will no doubt find itself endlessly compared to (the arguably far superior) MAN ON FIRE – and while this never quite hits the highs and lows of that film, nor shares its beautiful grit covered, grime encrusted look, it is easily playing in the same ballpark. Because what TAKEN has that most other revenge films don’t is that it isn’t afraid to give us an anti-hero who truly is ruthless, cunning and yet takes no delight in what he does. When he kills someone, he doesn’t relish it or spout off a badass one liner. He pulls the trigger or he breaks your neck or he slits your throat. And then he looks for someone else to kill. Like the film, he wastes not a second of time on bullshit.
And then at the end of the second act he does something completely and utterly unexpected that shows you just how serious he is about getting his daughter back. And it is one of those rare moments that gives you something you’ve never quite seen before. Not from a hero at least. And then the scene that follows cinches it up so nicely, giving this character a great level of depth that really nails what they’re going for. Bryan Mills isn’t an action hero. He isn’t the guy the government calls when no one else can pull it off. He’s a dad. A dad who has been trained to kill, torture and maim for god and country. And he becomes the bad day that a whole series of people have always feared would come.
While this is a revenge film, what’s so special about it is how little they focus on letting us revel in the vengeance. It really is a ticking clock movie in which the character is more like a very bad piece of weather that all of these criminals just seem to get in the way of. He blows through leaving a trail of carnage that claims collateral damage of a number of nearby criminal elements. And he never thinks twice about it. There are no negotiations, no pleas for sanity, and very little chance to beg for mercy. And it leads to the occasional moment in which we the audience begin to question what he’s doing, only to realize mere seconds later that the people dying really kind of have it coming – no matter how much or little involvement they actually have with what happened.
And when all is said and done, you have an experience unlike many, if any, other revenge films. While there’s a lot of things here you’ve seen before, it is assembled in a way that takes you on a new trip through familiar territory. If the film has one flaw, it is that its opening feels a bit forced. There’s about ten or so minutes of setup that feel like a VERY abbreviated version of the first act of MAN ON FIRE. They use a lot of short hand to convey a lot of the same notions without earning the emotions that its predecessor does by taking its time. At first glance one could easily think that this film was going downhill quickly. But it really feels like it HATES to be going through it, like it WISHES it could open with the kidnapping scene but knows that it can’t. Because once guys show up to take his daughter, the movie shifts into gear and kicks your ass for a solid 75 minutes.
Neeson is awesome, once again bringing his badass, tough guy persona to the screen. So many forget what a rough and tumble hero this guy can be. Someone the other day said “Man, he hasn’t been cool since DARKMAN.” What? Didn’t you see him fuck up the Batman? Or in GANGS OF NEW YORK? Or in KINGDOM OF HEAVEN? NEXT of KIN? He stood there with Swayze, baby! Fucking KRULL? He was an axe wielding barbarian for fucks sake. And as much as we may hate the prequels, one of the best moves Lucas made was making him a Jedi. The guy has bad mother fucker written all over him. But sure, play a loving widow step dad in one romantic comedy…and all of a sudden people forget 19 years of your career.
Breathless once it gets going and fun until the end, this is exactly the type of film I’m glad I saw in a theater. Thankful. Thankful would be a better word. It’s been a rough month. Having seen all the Oscar hopefuls in December, this month really has been filled with the bottom of the barrel for me. This was a breath of fresh air that reminded me why I love going to midnight movies on the night before opening day. Check this out at your earliest chance.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
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Got terrible reviews.
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Loved it.
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Nuff said.
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Jason Bourne
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...is always good, but you'll walk out of it agreein with me that the daughter deserved everything she got, and then some, spoilt little bimboid princess - and the wife shoulda been kidnapped too...
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I saw this last weekend, and while it is exactly what it looks like - a fun, PG-13 level revenge flick. And at a mere hour-n-twenty or so runtime, its worth a seat in a theatre. Don't expect greatness though.
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So this will be a definite rental for me.
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..doing what he should have done more of in The Phantom Menace, great flick, one of the most underrated of last year.
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My friends and I were laughing through the whole movie. There's some good action moments, but the plot and acting and cliches are all terrible.
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Absolutely kick ass movie, have to agree with the Massa.
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So what's wrong with that?This could be a better rental than I first thought then...
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Regardless, the movie is badass. Definitely worth the price of admission.
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in Spartan, with Val Kilmer. That movie sets the bar for this thriller/chase/rescue genre.
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I am sorry, this movie outright rocks.. there is no tired sentimentality a la Creasy Bear to be found.. Taken is an example of a card carrying killer doing what he does best....kill.
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Should probably include Rob Roy. He was this quiet steel eyed warrior who would let you live because you really weren't a threat to him, no matter how bad ass you were. But if you were going to insist, he'd oblige you with certain death and not hesitate.
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How can you list Liam Neeson bad ass creds and not mention Rob Roy? He cuts a man in half!!
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make this movie look like one of those crappy late-period Harrison Ford movies.
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It appears we listen to the same podcast...Is this the death of narrative cinema?
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Such fond memories, and one of the greatest lines ever in a movie....
"Take The Fucking Elephant!" -
hit it right on the head. This movie is fucking kick ass. It kicks the shit out of man on fire. Ive seen it 3 times and I still get a smile on my face when i watch it.
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Cuz almost everyone that wanted to see it has already downloaded it.
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"I once fought 2 days with an arrow through my testicle"
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Taken looks really good and Neeson is the man in just about every conceivable sense. That said, I think Man on Fire was lame and forgettable; the trailer for Taken was more entertaining.
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Am I the only one, probably besides Vern, that kind of wishes Taken starred Steven Seagal?
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One of my overrated films of this decade. The only good part of MoF was its 50-75% mark. Commando was the same film, except the 3/4 of MoF lameness was dispensed with in Commando's opening credits, leaving the rest of the film for joy.
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He hides inside an animal carcass! How badass is that? Okay, I actually want to see TAKEN now. Thanks, wyrm
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Simply because we know what to expect from both he and his movies. Half the fun of TAKEN is wondering exactly what Neeson's gonna do and how far he'll go. And unlike Liam Neeson, Seagal can't do charming and normal one minute and then turn around and become a cold-blooded psycho looking for his daughter.Steven Seagal has only one setting: Steven Seagal. He's the Keanu Reeves of martial art films.
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The original starred Scott Glenn. It wasn't too bad for its day.
Taken is good stuff. I'd seen it a while back and it is definitely worth the price of a ticket. -
Liam himself sort of hints at that in teh last interview he did. He had fun doing it all but really it's a dumb but well shot and decently paced movie. I did almost expect liam to scream IN YOUR FACE! when he got back to the US with the daughter.
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I should clarify that, the movie is dumb, but it's GREAT to watch with friends who wanna have a MST3K kinda night. We all thought it felt like a Segal flick that wound up in Neeson's hands instead.
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The film does what it sets out to do wonderfully. The cinematographer of 'Unleashed' ('Danny The Dog') has come up trumps. But i have to agree that it's down to Mr Neeson's gritty performance. The man once turned down Bond (so the story goes) and here you can see that Eon may well have captured the Craig era grittiness far sooner had he said yes.
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... but that's why I loved it so much. I really enjoyed it. 8/10
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Jan 30, 2009 11:50:12 AM CST
Massa gives Man on Fire love? You finally have my respect.
by dannyglovers_dickblood
And this movies sounds bad fucking ass. I shall be seeing it as soon as is humanly possible.
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Always liked the guy after that one.
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...kicked all sorts of ass. Especially that of Mel Gibson's pale period piece that won all the awards that year. Rob Roy was the far superior film.
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is a very underrated film.
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This movie is so often reviewed and hailed on this site, that i suspect foul play here. Its a very old release. Its viewed or downloaded by over 80% of the people who would have been interested in this movie. And most of all its overrated: ITS NOT THAT GOOD!!
We have several other great fresh movie releases who could use the support of AICN.
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Now that's more like it. I like what I'm hearing now about this flick, especially with unionJACK's assessment too. Gotta love solid action movies that know what they are.
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seriously. who HASNT already seen this? its like making a new post about gran turino right now. so are all the people who run this site like 50 years old or something? seriously!!
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two words:
let down -
It's an 18 in the UK, and i have no idea how the fuck you'd get a PG out of it. Cut half the film out? It's only about 85 minutes anyway. "Good luck".
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worth the bucks for the ticket or bytes for the download. however you do it.
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it looked heavily cut. chunks of the violence happened off screen or was sped up. i could tell there were digital pans & blurs added in post to obscure certain details. looks to me like it was a straight R flick and it was trimmed and trimmed and trimmed to meet the MPAA's pg-13 standard. now more people will see it and the money is a bit more assured. i'd like to see an unrated DVD of this. THERE we will see the REAL movie. all in all: i liked it. it's a slightly trouble, brutal action flick with a very good actor. i liked it quite a bit.
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..but was I wrong. Man on Fire is a fraction of what Taken is. (like some of the Tbers have previously mentioned.)I put this over the overrated Bourne flicks.Neesom is badass.
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yes?
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That was one of the fucking dumbest statements ive read today. And thats saying a hell of a lot!
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This looks like a film of badass cinema if I ever saw one.
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-and now finally he gets to put all those ninja skills to good use. Taken ROCKS...and it rocks hard. I saw it awhile back and it blew me away. Going to see it in the theater soon as it comes out.
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Oh, and for the guy who said this got bad reviews in the UK, you're full of shit, it got mixed reviews, i think its UK Rotten Tomato count was about 55%. Its actually out on Blu-ray in a couple of weeks with an even HARDER cut of the film. Looking forward to that.
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And got 1/5 or 1/10 from every review I saw.
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Granted, it doesn't have the violent gore of that movie, but the fights in Taken FEEL really violent and brutal without a lot of blood.
Its very streamlined unlike Man on Fire, and unlike Man on Fire, the action scenes are actually exciting and plentiful. -
at my local car boot sale last summer
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"Take it! Take the FUZZY elephant!"
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Unlike in "Man on Fire", Neeson doesn't waste time sticking a bomb up another man's ass.
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has done this same story like eleventy times
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yeah I said it, what?
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"If you go see Little Man, SHAME ON YOU!"
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Right? I remember AICN going gaga (as i did) over that original bad-ass trailer that featured most of the phone-call scene, but that was in the middle of the summer 2008.... Did they just hype it and then change its release date for the US? It had to have been given a wide release in other countries by now. I mean, right after I read the review, I rather easily went and found a 720p HD version of this movie on usenet, posted in October.
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I saw it a while ago, and my only complaint is the henchmen.
Really, there isnt a single, highly paid, armed bodyguard in all of london that can compete with Liam Neeson? He really just kills...everyone.
The final 20 minutes of this movie are arguably its weakest. Everything up until that point had me on the edge of my seat. But after that, liam neeson's character turns into john mcclane.
7.5/10 :-P -
Very enjoyable though, just a "switch off your brain and relax" type movie. Similar vein to Man On Fire, but with a faster pace and much less flamboyant. Neeson definitely elevates the film. Maggie Grace was miscast as a teengaer though, she looks like she's 30 (well, 26 anyway). That bit where she squeals and rides the pony...creepy.
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I thought Massa was talking about that movie that killed Qui's bad assness. Turns out he was in Love Actually, never seen it.
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PG-13???? Is it really worth it to try to make Liam a Teen Bop heartthrob? I mean who 13 and under even knows who the fuck he is? Even if they've seen Star Begins. I guess they saw what big of a splash Paul Blart made and thought why shouldn't every movie get that kind of success?
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and I fully intend on seeing this. Neeson should never be underestimated in an action role and I find it incredible (given Massa's review) that someone who could remember Darkman had to be reminded of all the serious ass kickings this man has dealt over his cinematic career. An action star with range is a valuable thing and that alone makes Taken worth seeing.
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The Tony Scott Filmmaking For Idiots version? Someone actually liked that turd?
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