Taken and other stuff

Neeson's wax likeness was far too realistic

Last night I watched Taken with Liam Neeson. What?

You might have never heard of this little French made American film, as it isn't released in the States until 2009. Liam Neeson is a relatively big star and the script was co-written by Luc Besson, so you'd think it would have generated at least some buzz. However, it sort of cropped up with no real fanfare.

Basically, it's a French made film, set in France with a lot of French actors but the leads are all played by Americans and Neeson does his best. The plot sounds like some Jet Li film, where a former spy (Neeson) relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter (Maggie Grace), who has been forced into the slave trade.

I didn't expect much of this film at all. Liam Neeson as a bad ass spy hell bent on revenge? Yeah, I saw Love Actually ok? I'm not saying the man can't play scary or intimidating, he can. It's just, serious action? A bit of a departure.

Watching the film I realised this wasn't his ideal role and he wasn't 100% believable in the part, yet I had so much fun watching this movie. It had old school action a-la Die Hard where people are punched and shot and stabbed (in one scene with a broken bottle) in totally gratuitous scenes of absolute violence fuelled by revenge. Gritty, dirty and one of those movies that elicits lots of "OHHHH"s.

Taken was also suspenseful and highlights the awful truth of the modern-day slave trade. It can and does happen to anyone.

I'm not saying this is a brilliant movie but action fans will eat up the cool fight sequences, peppered with Martial Arts.

I really enjoyed Taken and I give it 3.5/5 stars.

Kubrick fans at Comic-Con were considered outcasts

In other news, you may have noticed the big fancy banner at the top of the page has disappeared. It will be replaced with the one from the new website as soon as I create it. Not sure when that will be as my poor computer will probably explode if I try to use photoshop. It's barely running Outlook!

The new site will hopefull be up and running in a few weeks time and I give the new podcast say two weeks to go from conception to produced audio which is uploaded for your listening pleasure. Basically, I just need a bit more training in the production studio. It'll happen!

Finally, I'll be writing a review for a capital city newspaper here in Australia for Tropic Thunder. I'm allowed to post it here after it has been published so look out for that. (Here's a preview: I liked it, but it dragged in the middle)

Thanks for sticking with me and I should get back to my regular writing duties at I Heart Movies, Turkey or Not and Mile Hive very soon!

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