Review: Taken
Ho. Lee. Shit. "Taken" starring Liam Neeson as a retired "preventer" (aka absolute shit kicker), is a throwback to the old days of no apologies action films. This film is like "The Transporter" except the replaced the cheesy, over-the-top action with utter brutality. If a parent or human rights group sees this movie, they'll shit a brick. This is the kind of films that kids love and parents despise. My blood was racing after the film ended. They don't make films like this anymore. (Click below to read more on "Taken")
Now don't get me wrong, the film is hardly flawless. The villains have laughably bad aim. Neeson successfully impersonates a French policeman despite the fact that he's speaking English the whole time. You definitely need to turn your brain off and go along for the ride but good lord, what a ride. There's one scene in particular that I think will be a shoo-in for the top five scenes of 2009.
On a side note, either they did a Benjamin Button effect on Maggie Grace or the make-up people are wizards but she looked ten years younger in this.
That random thought aside, if you like bare knuckle action films, you HAVE to see "Taken". It's the kind of film during which you don't mind if people say "Oh shit" or "Goddamn!" out loud because you were almost going to say the same thing. This isn't a film like Bourne that transcends the genre; it exemplifies the genre and revels in it. I've probably now hyped it up to much but, whatever, I loved it.
---
On a more serious note, I can't believe that this film is PG-13. Not that I think it's going to scar children if they see it but if "Slumdog Millionaire" is R and "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" was almost NC-17, then I'm not sure how a film this brutal can be considered fun for (almost) the whole family. You can actually see the cuts that were made in this film to satisfy the MPAA - you don't see people getting shot; you see a gun go off and then you see someone fall over. But if they even came close to insinuating sex like they did the killing and torture in this film, the film would be NC-17 or, at best, a hard R. I honestly wouldn't be stunned if we started hearing parental groups start complaining again about violence in movies because this and The Dark Knight are starting to push the envelope (and the Democrats are in charge of the government) but even still, the way violence is treated in comparison to sex is laughable.
Of course, it's not like I can get on my high horse or anything because I loved this movie so take what I said for what it's worth and (if you like old school, bare-knuckle action films) go see "Taken".
