They have taken his daughter
He will hunt them. He will find them. And he will kill them.
Firstly I cannot believe this movie is officially released in the UK on 26th September 2009 and January 2009 in the USA. That's a big enough gap if ever I saw one. Why the studio decided on that I had no idea.
I had free tickets to see this tonight, so left what was a slow moving Monday at the office and headed to the cinema with Miss D to watch this film which has been on my list since of films to see ever since I first saw the trailer.
Now I don't give movie plots away, not even if the person begs. But I will say this, I watch and buy a lot of movies and haven't enjoyed a film like this since the summer release of Hancock starring Will Smith. I love an action flick, give me a plot to keep me gripped, car chases, fast cars, and some gunfire and I'm good to go.
The plot was original, and the first 20 minutes starts off setting the pace, but without boring you to sleep. What you get from it is Neeson's character, a divorcee with a 17 year old daughter, is trying to form a close relationship with her, but under the constant watch of the mother and step father, it seems Neeson's character can do nothing right, and at the end of the day just has a bitter ex-wife. His ex-wife is played by Famke Jansenn (and she's playing the same type of roles lately, bitter wife with a botox expression) it's almost like she came from the set of The Wackness onto the set of Taken because she was a miserable bitch of a wife in that film too. Someone give her a red wig and bring her back as Jean Gray please, because I'm beginning to believe she's a very one dimensional actress.
Jansenn is in it when she needs to be and leaves Neeson to literally blow you away with his performance as an ex spy who has gone from California to Paris to track down the mob who have kidnapped his daughter who has gone to Paris on vacation with her best friend. And boy does he track them down.
The UK Movie posters are very Matrix like. Neo without the black glasses and a shorter leather jacket, I was wondering what could Qui-Gon Jinn (from the resurrected new age Star Wars movie) bring to this role? I mean quite frankly isn't Liam Neeson better reserved for dialogue laden roles and movies that bring in Oscar nods even if he's not nominated himself (think Schindler's List). Well let me tell you, Daniel Craig better bring it to the plate in The Quantum of Solace, because I was astounded. Yes astounded at a non-action actor whooping some serious ass in this movie. Liam can fight, bruck you up and kill you with his bare hands, knives, a pipe or a gun, and he makes it look so believable. And he's not going to stop until he's killed you, and it all done without any remorse either. If there were Academy Awards for action roles alone Liam would be in the running for 2008 and probably win. He is a cross between Bourne and Bond with a little of Jack Bauer thrown in for good measure.
You'll find yourself shouting at the screen like I did to "whoop his ass", "yeah that's right", "Oh my goodness he chopped him right in the throat" and I can tell you there were certainly faint voices heard around me in the cinema all rooting for Liam during his car chases and fight scenes which usually involved him and about 5 or 6 men. And when taken out, like Bourne and Bauer, seemed more believable like trained SAS soldiers and a little less Hollywood.
All in all I enjoyed myself for the full hour and a half, there was a story with no holes in it, easy to follow and good acting from a cast that didn't need 50% of A-Listers in them. I had no idea Liam was about all that, and with just over a month to go I really hope that the next Bond installment delivers on the car chases, fight scenes as well as a tight story otherwise it's going to flop in my book against an under rated less publicized film like Taken.
As much as I am a huge 24 fan I definitely would have to say if they ever went head to head who would win between a fight of Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne (my bet is Bourne), thrown Bryan (Neeson) in the mix and now I'm not quite sure who would win actually. Liam Neeson was definitely a dark horse in this movie.
I definitely had a favourite line in the movie and without giving anything away as it's already been shown in the trailer, he tells the voice on the other end of the phone "I will find you." The guy on the other end says "Good Luck." I'll leave it at that, because Liam delivers the line when you least expect it, but you will know what I'm talking about. And when he did it was most definitely on.
And the daughter Kim (a brunette) in the movie, if you can't quite place her. It's Shannon (a blonde) from LOST, and please don't even ask what was up with her awkward running about in this movie. She's 25 years old playing a 17 year old innocent girl and played it very well, because I had no idea till I came home and looked it her up on IMDB that it was actually her. She was a minx on LOST and an innocent Virgin in Taken.
Maggie Grace as Shannon in LOST and (below) as Kim in Taken
Would I see it again? YES
One to add to the DVD Collection? YES
Rating out of 10. 8.5/10
I had free tickets to see this tonight, so left what was a slow moving Monday at the office and headed to the cinema with Miss D to watch this film which has been on my list since of films to see ever since I first saw the trailer.
Now I don't give movie plots away, not even if the person begs. But I will say this, I watch and buy a lot of movies and haven't enjoyed a film like this since the summer release of Hancock starring Will Smith. I love an action flick, give me a plot to keep me gripped, car chases, fast cars, and some gunfire and I'm good to go.
The plot was original, and the first 20 minutes starts off setting the pace, but without boring you to sleep. What you get from it is Neeson's character, a divorcee with a 17 year old daughter, is trying to form a close relationship with her, but under the constant watch of the mother and step father, it seems Neeson's character can do nothing right, and at the end of the day just has a bitter ex-wife. His ex-wife is played by Famke Jansenn (and she's playing the same type of roles lately, bitter wife with a botox expression) it's almost like she came from the set of The Wackness onto the set of Taken because she was a miserable bitch of a wife in that film too. Someone give her a red wig and bring her back as Jean Gray please, because I'm beginning to believe she's a very one dimensional actress.
Jansenn is in it when she needs to be and leaves Neeson to literally blow you away with his performance as an ex spy who has gone from California to Paris to track down the mob who have kidnapped his daughter who has gone to Paris on vacation with her best friend. And boy does he track them down.
The UK Movie posters are very Matrix like. Neo without the black glasses and a shorter leather jacket, I was wondering what could Qui-Gon Jinn (from the resurrected new age Star Wars movie) bring to this role? I mean quite frankly isn't Liam Neeson better reserved for dialogue laden roles and movies that bring in Oscar nods even if he's not nominated himself (think Schindler's List). Well let me tell you, Daniel Craig better bring it to the plate in The Quantum of Solace, because I was astounded. Yes astounded at a non-action actor whooping some serious ass in this movie. Liam can fight, bruck you up and kill you with his bare hands, knives, a pipe or a gun, and he makes it look so believable. And he's not going to stop until he's killed you, and it all done without any remorse either. If there were Academy Awards for action roles alone Liam would be in the running for 2008 and probably win. He is a cross between Bourne and Bond with a little of Jack Bauer thrown in for good measure.
You'll find yourself shouting at the screen like I did to "whoop his ass", "yeah that's right", "Oh my goodness he chopped him right in the throat" and I can tell you there were certainly faint voices heard around me in the cinema all rooting for Liam during his car chases and fight scenes which usually involved him and about 5 or 6 men. And when taken out, like Bourne and Bauer, seemed more believable like trained SAS soldiers and a little less Hollywood.
All in all I enjoyed myself for the full hour and a half, there was a story with no holes in it, easy to follow and good acting from a cast that didn't need 50% of A-Listers in them. I had no idea Liam was about all that, and with just over a month to go I really hope that the next Bond installment delivers on the car chases, fight scenes as well as a tight story otherwise it's going to flop in my book against an under rated less publicized film like Taken.
As much as I am a huge 24 fan I definitely would have to say if they ever went head to head who would win between a fight of Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne (my bet is Bourne), thrown Bryan (Neeson) in the mix and now I'm not quite sure who would win actually. Liam Neeson was definitely a dark horse in this movie.
I definitely had a favourite line in the movie and without giving anything away as it's already been shown in the trailer, he tells the voice on the other end of the phone "I will find you." The guy on the other end says "Good Luck." I'll leave it at that, because Liam delivers the line when you least expect it, but you will know what I'm talking about. And when he did it was most definitely on.
And the daughter Kim (a brunette) in the movie, if you can't quite place her. It's Shannon (a blonde) from LOST, and please don't even ask what was up with her awkward running about in this movie. She's 25 years old playing a 17 year old innocent girl and played it very well, because I had no idea till I came home and looked it her up on IMDB that it was actually her. She was a minx on LOST and an innocent Virgin in Taken.
Maggie Grace as Shannon in LOST and (below) as Kim in Taken
One to add to the DVD Collection? YES
Rating out of 10. 8.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.