David Cassidy Video:

		List Price: $39.99		Label: 20th Century Fox Salesrank: 777 Released: May 12, 2009
		Our Price: $16.99
		Used Price: $14.99
		MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
20th Century Taken (Blu-ray)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 manyother 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.

Description of Taken [Blu-ray]:
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)

Taken [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Much better than I expected!
2009-11-08 - A co-worker suggested this movie saying it was better than most were giving it credit for and I was hesitant to take his word on it, as this co-worker has suggested other movies to my hubby and me that I ended up really disliking (My Super Ex-Girlfriend for example). But I gave in and gave it a try as I do like Liam Neeson, but I wasn't expecting much in the end.

The plot was a little weak and the movie overall was a bit formulaic. I didn't care for Maggie Grace as the daughter, and felt her acting was a bit lame in this movie. And I definitely wasn't expecting Liam Neeson to be so kick-butt in this movie and I was surprised at how much I really liked this film by the end! It's a good guy takes revenge on the bad guy flick and Liam excelled at it in this movie. And that is really why this movie is so good. Much, much better than I thought it would be and I am glad that I took the chance and saw it. You should too!

Schindler's List 2. This time it's personal.
2009-11-05 - Taken: 6 out of 10: Taken comes this close to being great. It had an admittedly rocky start with Liam Neeson is trying to reconnect with his virginal 17 year-old teenage daughter in a way that seems just on this side of creepy. (Dude get your own girlfriend... really)

Speaking of which; swarthy bad guys, who clearly have never heard of Nancy Grace, are kidnapping Rich American Girls and making them drugged out street walkers or selling them for millions to Arab Sheiks based on whether they are virgins or not.

So ex-CIA estranged father Liam Neeson has 96 hours to find his daughter before she is gone forever deflowered and then burkaized apparently. A Fate Worse than Death you can almost hear the characters thinking.

Its as if Charles Bronson was guest starring in an Ilsa the Wicked Warden film located in George C Scotts Hardcore and the entire enterprise was PG-13. And yet the film still works two thirds through. Liam Neeson is more than fine. He is kicking ass on all cylinders. Its the bad guys that drop the ball.

First a rich French guy starts quoting the Godfather. Its not personal its business For starters the quote isnt even in context. He might as well have told the gun toting Liam Neeson may the force be with you for all the sense it makes. Second of all you cant quote the Godfather without referencing the fact that you are quoting it in the first place. Any screenwriter who does that should be sleeping with the fishes.

The second slap to the head is an Arab Sheik character that looked like he stepped out of a 1940s Bugs Bunny cartoon. Honestly I dont know where to begin on this silly stereotype. Why is he the film? Why does he have a knife to the white virgins throat? Who would Oscar Schindler shoot????

The last point seems important since the Arab is basically a Juden in a dress. Same large noses, same aversion to pork, same living in ghettos in Europe (Or/and having all the money), same secret organizations paying off French politicians, same affinity to despoiling white Aryan virgins... The more things change the more the stay the same I guess. (They didnt have the Arab cook and eat a baby. I guess they are holding that back for the sequel)

Overt French xenophobia aside, Taken is a fun ride for most of the trip. (The dinner with his French policeman friend and Frenchman's wife was a particular highlight) And as I did mention Liam Neeson does kick ass.



shallow, boring, stupid
2009-10-30 - Sorry -- Bought this on the recommendation of Liam Neeson's acting and shots of Paris. Well, there are only a couple of shots of Paris, and none worth a second glance -- that's all you get is a glance at anything, as the movie never stops rushing from one place to antoher, pausing only long enough for Neeson to dispose of an enemy in a few quick cuts. There's no dialog worth mentioning in the entire movie, and the only subplot (with his French friend as part of the crime ring) so overused in detective/action movies it's blase now. Liam Neeson's acting cannot overcome poor plot, poor dialog, poor filming, poor costuming, poor editing, and poor acting on every one else's part (his 17 year old daughter acts like she's six years old, even Famke Janssen is flat as his ex-wife). The reason this is only an hour and a half is because of the total lack of content. Pierre Morel (director)and Luc Besson (writer) clearly demonstrate why Hollywood, as lame and unoriginal as it is, continues to reign over the movie world -- because these people are more lame and unoriginal.

Simple, brutal thriller
2009-10-29 - The Bottom Line:

No one is going to accuse Taken of being an intelligent film, but if you're in the mood for a slick action movie that moves relentlessly from one scene to the next, doesn't use CGI, and never requires brain usage, than Taken is the film for you.

3/4

Greating acting makes a great popcorn thriller
2009-10-27 - If you come to this movie looking for "reality" you will not be happy. However, if you understand that a thriller is all about the action and the intensity of emotion, this movie is a nice little gem of an action picture.

Liam Neeson is a respected "serious" actor and his ability is well used to take a cardboard character, as written on the page, and making him into an angst-ridden, existential killing machine. In the beginning of the movie, Neeson's character, "Bryan Mills", is a big puppy dog of a man. Gone too long from his daughter's life, he is overly eager to please her. A difficult task given that his ex-wife has married a multi-millionaire who gives his daughter, "Kim", everything which Bryan cannot.

Kim, played very well by Maggie Grace, is one of those seventeen year old girls you occasionally come across who has a woman's body but still is basically a kid, too trusting and too sweet by half. While she does not understand her father, she clearly has great affection for him and, though they have spent little time together due to his job, he seems to understand her better than does her mother.

To cut to the chase, Kim goes to Paris with her nineteen year old friend, "Amanda". Unlike Kim, Amanda is nineteen going on twenty-nine, overly confident and more interested in having sex with cute boys than exploring Paris. Directly because of this lack of impulse control, Amanda allows a young man to know where she and Kim are staying and that, despite telling Kim otherwise, there will be no adult chaperones.

Bad mistake. Soon, a gang of immigrant Albanian thugs break into the apartment to kidnap the girls, more warm bodies for their white slave trade. This is where Maggie Grace shines. Her expression as she realizes what is going on is very moving and makes the viewer desire rescue and revenge on Kim's behalf.

And revenge is on the way. Kim's father was gone from her life so often because he was a "preventer" for the CIA. A man of gentle warmth around his daughter, he is trained to be efficiently brutal and to kill when needed. And kill he does. Once in Paris, Bryan is a force of nature. Like a hurricane, the few fools who get in his way are soon blown to the winds - which is a polite way of saying, dead.

Here is where Neeson's acting ability is most appreciated. I have seen him play a warm, loving man before (see "Love Actually") and a warrior (see "Rob Roy"); however, here he is something more. Once Kim is taken, his face is hard as granite, his manner is a polite front hiding an eagerness to brutalize, and he moves with an athletic efficiency as he dispatches bad guy after bad guy. He literally does become a force of nature, the proverbial father whose love for his daughter has made him transcended basic humanity. He will get her back or die in the effort. While "Taken" describes the plot of this movie, "Driven" defines its heart. Nothing and nobody will prevent Bryan from getting back his daughter. Very intense.

On the minus side, the movie is by a French director which means he tends to ignore the likely consequences for Bryan. I have notice this before. American directors always present the logic of action by throwing in short scenes to "justify" what the character does next whereas French directors are more concerned with sustaining the emotional intensity and, therefore, ignore such scenes since they break the flow of action.

In example, Bryan is chasing a bad guy at the airport and simultaneously is being chased by police officers. When the bad guy dies, suddenly we are in the next scene. Somehow, Bryan has evaded those police officers. How? We never know. Similarly, Bryan hears a bad guy talk about trouble at the worksite. Next thing you know, Bryan is at the worksite. How he found it is never shown. This is particularly perplexing since Bryan is new to Paris and this is the first time he has seen the bad buy in question.

Another minus is the simplistic character dynamics. While highly skillful as a spy, Bryan is a failure in everyday life. As is too common in such movies, his ex-wife's new husband is not only more successful, but a paragon of success with a big mansion and many cars. As for the wife, though she has full custody of their daughter and has re-married "up", she is continually belittling and shrewish toward Bryan - who she divorced mostly because his job kept him away too long and not because she and him differed. Why is she shrewish? No apparent reason other than it serves the director's desire to create as much conflict as possible. Basically, the ex-wife and her new husband are written to pile doo-doo on the Bryan character, make him more of a loser so he can rise like a phoenix once his daughter is kidnapped. Effective - but obvious.

The contrast between Kim and Amanda is also too obvious. "Good daughter" versus "slut". This latter contrast is compounded by the indifference shown toward Amanda's death. "Good daughters" deserve rescue: "sluts" are like furniture, you throw'em away after use.

Despite these minuses, the movie works because Maggie Grace's performance (though sometimes mannered) makes you care deeply for Kim and because Liam Neeson brings a rich complexity to Bryan, making him intelligent, dignified and vulnerable, even when the occasion requires him to be closed off from his humanity. These two actors have great chemistry and I hope they work with each other in the future.