 |
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Taken (15)
© Unknown - all rights reserved |
| |
|
|
| |
 |
| Tookey's Rating |
|
|
5
/10 |
| |
| Average Rating |
|
|
3.25
/10 |
| |
| Starring |
Liam Neeson  , Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen
|
| Full Cast > |
|
|
|
| |
Directed by:
Pierre Morel
Written by:
Luc Besson
|
|
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
| Released: |
2008 |
| |
|
| Genre: |
THRILLER
ACTION
CRIME
SO BAD
|
| |
|
| Origin: |
France |
| |
|
| Colour: |
C |
| |
|
| Length: |
96 |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
Violent, racist rubbish, but undeniably entertaining. |
Reviewed by Chris Tookey
|
Almost as violent, just as devoid of character development but considerably less boring is Taken. It’s energetically directed by Pierre Morel, who made the mindless but entertaining District 13. Taken is one of those action movies where a vengeful father tries to rescue his child from kidnappers - think of Mel Gibson in Ransom, and then lower your expectations. A lot.
Being co-written and produced by Luc Besson, the crime takes place in Paris, and the mad-as-hell father leaves no car unchased and no baddie unslaughtered in order to find his daughter, who has been taken by sleazy Albanians to feed fat Arab billionaires’ tastes for drug-ridden nubile American virgins. Yes, it’s that crude and racist – and the numerous plot holes (how did the American get his firearms? And his fake ID as a French policeman?) make the whole thing hilariously implausible.
The movie’s principal asset is Liam Neeson (pictured), who’s clearly slumming, but just as obviously having a whale of a time pretending to be Bruce Willis. Liam’s one of the few Hollywood actors who’s bigger in person than he looks on the screen (he’s a muscular 6 foot 4) and he’s quick on his feet for a man in his mid-fifties. He certainly looks menacing when angry, unlike Griff Rhys Jones. But not even the back story that he used to work for American Intelligence can convince us that he wouldn’t last long if just one of the dozens of bad guys he dispatches could shoot straight. There’s a more than slightly disgusting relish in the scene where he uses good old CIA know-how to torture someone for information; and the happy ending assumes that the French authorities would have nothing to say about our hero’s trail of murder and mayhem, including the casual shooting of one innocent civilian who does nothing worse than cook him dinner.
Seeing a personification of America exterminate pesky foreigners as if they’re so many cockroaches does have entertainment value, despite its worrying overtones. It’s just weird that it’s been made, with no apparent irony, by a couple of Frenchmen.
|
|
|
|
|
|
