I realize that the punchline of today’s comic is a cheap bit of slapstick, but I can’t resist when things start getting serious.
Can you tell that Jimmy is hurting? And not just from the door swinging open at 20 miles per hour (who knew the bathroom door was on a double-hinge?) I’m drawing things out a little bit, but Jimmy’s fear of the women’s restroom has less to do with a nervous Nellie insecurity around the fairer sex than one might have previously assumed.
I think you guys are really going to like where I go with this next. The challenge for me at this moment is to move past the exposition and start digging deeper into Jimmy’s past.
I’m not usually very graceful when it comes to these transitions. I have to take the Band-Aid approach to them: Just rip it off and get it over with. The Band-Aid in this case would be my propensity to keep the characters in one place doing the talking head’s routine before one of them slips on a banana peel.
I was able to get out of the house this weekend and see Liam Neeson in Taken. I had a lot of fun at this movie. It’s a solid B-action thriller. What’s great about it, I think, is that 1.) It is absolutely cut-throat and 2.) Liam Neeson is pretty much unstoppable.
It’s funny. If it were a Tom Cruise movie featuring some square-jawed action guy dodging a hail of bullets and kicking ass, I would reject it. But because it’s Neeson, I totally buy it. That guy brings so much authority and command to everything he does. There’s not an “actory” bone in his body. He just… does the work and makes it look real.
Taken is the kind of movie Harrison Ford would have done 10 years ago. Except this time instead of a missing wife, Neeson is searching for his missing daughter who has been kidnapped and sold into the sex trade by Albanian thugs in Paris.
Watching this movie reminded me when I went to Edinburgh with a friend in 1999. My Dad warned me about strange people and (without getting into it) basically told me to keep my wits about me so I don’t get raped.
I don’t know if he was confused for a minute or if what he said came out wrong, but my family and I have been torturing him about it ever since.
Thankfully, I wasn’t raped by a Scottish highlander on my excusion, but I understand a little more clearly his parental concern after watching Taken.
Should I have been taken advantage of in some way 10 years ago, I’m not sure my Dad would travel over half the globe to put a massive smackdown on a network of European criminals… but stranger things have happened.
I think what I love about Taken is that it goes to NO effort toward making Neeson into a hero. This guy kills EVERYONE. He doesn’t negotiate. He shoots people in the back! He’ll graze your wife with a .45 slug if it gets him closer to finding his daughter!
I don’t know if I’ve been asked to sympathize with a remoresless protagonist in this way before. I wasn’t bothered by it. I think they were pretty much counting on the audience to give Neeson’s character full reign because – hey – his daughted had been kidnapped and sold into the sex trade! That pretty much excuses any bloody mess you start to stir up in a foreign city.
What’s crazy is that this movie has been out in Austrailia for over a year before we got a chance to see it here in America. Usually, it’s the other way around. I’m not even entirely sure at what point it came up on my radar. But I saw the riviting trailer at some point (“This is the important part (pause) They are going to take you.”) and knew it was a must-see for me.
He’s what’s even crazier… Taken took the box office crown this weekend earning nearly $25 million in ticket sales! That’s Paul Blart money we’re talking about here, folks.
Frankly, I’m glad Neeson put a movie like this under his belt. For too long I think audiences have viewed him as a the firm but kind fatherly type and it was a pleasure to see him put that on it’s ear. Neeson’s performance in Taken reminded me of another film where he was a complete bad-ass. One of my favorites, actually, Rob Roy.
Waitaminute… Neeson played a Scottish highlander in that movie! OH, DEAR GOD! I CAN SEE THROUGH TIME!
I’m really excited to talk about Taken tonight at 9:00 PM CST when we record our weekly podcast, The Triple Feature. Did you know we record it over at TalkShoe.com? Because we do.
This was a movie that all three of us agreed to see last week and I think we actually made it happen – which is kind of rare since I don’t leave the house much anymore. I think we’re at our best when the three of us have all seen the same thing, so if you listen live tonight, I think you’ll be in for a treat.
In the meantime, who else here saw Taken this weekend? What did you think? Leave your comments below!
*sigh*
How did I ever lose you?
*BAM!*
I'm sorry -- Did you say something to me?
I saw Taken this weekend as well Tom (as I told you last week I would).
I loved it, Liam Neeson just exudes this aura of authority so if he says he’s going to stop at nothing to find you and kill you, well you genuinely feel like he will do just that.
He is one of the few actors who performs exceptionally well in any role he takes. I hope to see more movies like this from him in the future.
It’s on my want to see list, for exactly what you described. The promos show Liam Neeson being a bad-ass, and that’s what I want to see. I don’t think the wife is interested, though, so I may have to wait until it hits video.
I too saw it this weekend, and really enjoyed it. Definately filled the gap of an action movie I’ve been missing recently.
Other then some of the pacing and tempo in the (first I think) chase scene, everything was nicely done. I’ve always enjoyed Liam Neeson’s work (Darkman anyone?) and am glad to see him change up his image alittle.
Wished this had come out sooner. Oh, and also, Luc Besson has put some awesome movies out there, and am glad to see that this is another he can add to his suit of armor.
Taken was the movie experience I have been waiting for. Quantum of Solace left a strange taste in my mouth so I had been waiting for an action movie to come up and really show me something and Taken left me excited the whole time.
I saw Taken, also. I was surprised at how much Liam Neeson was still able to kick ass at his age. Although, I supposed if Harrison Ford can make it through an Indy movie in in 60s I shouldn’t have been.
I also caught Slumdog Millionaire this weekend; it was wonderful!! I’m so glad it got nominated for so many Oscars, otherwise I doubt it would have been playing in the theater around here at all! I definitely recommend everyone go see it if you can.
Oi! Us Scottish Highlanders ain’t that bad!!! 🙂
I like you fine, George! It’s my Dad that doesn’t trust ya! 😉
Saw Taken, thought it was pure badassery. What I loved most was just how unassuming it was. It didn’t try to pretend it had some larger message to send; it was just Liam Neeson dismantling people for an hour and a half. I’ll take two.
the camerawork in the fight scenes was everything the last two bourne movies should’ve been
Hey Tom 🙂 Loved the comic since day one…. I live in Scotland. What did you think of fair Edinburgh? Almost as cold as Aberdeen were I am on the North Sea coast…
Dave,
I LOVED Edinburgh. I’d do anything to go back someday.
I was there under kind of rare circumstances, though. When we went, it was during the Edinburgh Arts Festival and the Tattoo. So it was already a happening place. Then, on top of that, it we were there during the last solar eclipse of the 20th century. My friend and I climbed to the top of Edinburgh Castle to view it. We didn’t get a full eclipse being that far North (I guess London was in complete darkness). For us, it was like a brown out. Or like someone slowly dimmed the lights.
I swear, if you were going to have a Led Zepplin black magic moment, you’d be hard pressed not to get your rocks of during a solar eclipse on top of Edinburgh Castle.
Well seems I might have to go find Taken on DVD. I think I’ve seen it around. (Full disclosure: I’m in China and DVD piracy is rampant and theatres only play G rated movies)
I’m glad you added comments to the posts, it gives me a reason to come to your site, otherwise I’d just stick to getting it via RSS.
Chris, I can’t tell you how happy you’ve made me by letting me know you approve of the comments add-on. If I’ve managed to lure you back from RSS, I consider that a win! 😀
My wife and i saw the trailer a few eeeks ago and i went about acquiring it in the only way things are done on the internet. We both loved it so much that we went to the theater to see it to make sure it got our money. Here’s the thing, they cut like 3-4 mnutes of content. Which totally sucked because it was so unnecessary. So yes, if you can find a dvd of it from out of the country, grab that. The changes (from what i remember) were a conversation that Bryan had with lenore after Kim landed. She hadn’t called, so Bryan called Lenore wanting to know if she’d heard from her. The second was the torture scene. In the original cut, Bryan stuck a giant set of nails in the dude’s legs and then attached the wires to them from the get go. Lastly, when Bryan kills the St.Calire guy, instead of three shots, Bryan unloads the entire clip into him. That’s everything I can remember ATM.
I saw Taken in England ages ago. It was ok, bit stupid in places (“He must be french, he’s carrying a baggette” and the 25 year-old-ish actress playing the 16 year old) but I found it was good once I realised I should be watching it as if it was a film of James Bond after he retires…..
I’ve met Liam Neeson! Well – I saw him from a short distance anyway…
I’m not sure about Taken though, I think it’s been out here for a little while and I haven’t heard any reports on it. Maybe one to wait for the DVD. Finally getting to see Milk tomorrow night, and hopefully Benjamin Button next week. Damn our UK releases being so far behind the US, they’re practically begging a guy to illegally download their movies. Makes a fanboy like me go stir crazy.
So Tom did you hear about Dev Patel from Slumdog Millionaire being cast in The Last Airbender? I haven’t seen the movie yet, and I know you and Cami loved it, but there’s just something about it that isn’t doing anything for me. All I know the guy from is from a pretty decent British show called Skins, which is definitely worth checking out, and he seems like a good actor. Maybe I’ll try and grab Slumdog before it stops showing.
Frankie, you’re totally right about the baggette. I saw the detective character walking down the street with it and wondered where his beret was!
Kieran… I don’t know what to think about Patel being cast in The Last Airbender. Part of me thinks it’s stunt casting. Kind of like putting Mickey Rourke in Iron Man 2. Both of these guys are hot right now, but it’s not like they’re going to be doing revolutionary work for the next 15 years. Patel did a good job in Slumdog, but nothing remarkable.
I liked Taken, but I found it a little formulaic. As soon as his daughter’s friend says she’s going to have sex, I knew she was a goner. Though I did appreciate how they put a fair amount of energy into characterization of other characters – the ex-wife turned out to have more dimension than implied in the early scene in the birthday party.
I thought the best friend demonstrated the clearest lack of understanding of any victim of violence in Hollywood history. “We can’t go with him! He’s a stranger!” “Who cares? He’s hot!” See you later. The movie punishes her ignorance in the most flippant manner imaginable. It’s really quite cruel. But, at the same time, kind of a reasonable comeuppance.
When I saw the baguette at first I thought it was the same purpose as the bag of groceries Liam Neeson’s character was carrying – to provide pretext for being in the apartment. But yeah, for some reason that part didn’t really bother me – I just figured his wife had asked him to pick up some bread on the way home, and since he’s French he got a baguette.
Regarding the best friend, I guess that’s true that she was punished for having bad judgment rather than simply for being sexual (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeathBySex) but I still found it all rather heavy-handed… especially how [SPOILER WARNING]
a) he finds her dead – if these people were the cold-blooded sex merchants they seemed to be, you’d think they’d put a little care into not killing their victims with drugs, and
b) once Liam finds her dead, he doesn’t do ANYTHING, and the film seems to forget about her completely – you’d think his daughter might at least be like “What about Amanda? Did you find her too?” and he’d be all “She died… of stupidity”.
We talked about this on The Triple Feature last Monday insofar that the film is very straight forward and doesn’t really care about the peripheral characters. Take, for example, the woman he rescues — the one that was wearing the jacket that belongs to his daughter. He gets her cleaned up enough to be coherant and then what happens to her? Not important. Not from the narrative’s perspective.
Granted, the best friend is a slightly more prominent character, but she’s disposed of just as readily. In a conventional action-thriller, the context would have been established for Neeson’s character to manage the remains of the dead friend. Or, worse case scenario, the hooker he cleaned up becomes his partner to help him find his daughter.
Good point – though, as I said before, I thought they really did deal with his ex-wife far better than many movies of that genre would have. (also, I missed about a month of Triple Feature, so I didn’t hear your Taken conversation.) I suppose the film’s whole shtick is its single-mindedness, to the extent where it seemed that the film was TRYING to get her kidnapped. Seriously, he had the EXACT skill set needed to get her back. But of course, why would the movie exist if that hadn’t happened?
But yeah, I’d love to see the movie where Liam Neeson partners up with the hooker to solve crimes- that sounds kind of awesome.
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