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5/18/09
The Grab Bag: Taken (2008)
It does happen every once and while. There are hit movies that are actually worth watching. Better yet, sometimes they are little pictures that sneak under the radar and exceed everyone’s expectations. Tonight’s film is just that. Arriving from the same French production company that gave us gems like Wasabi (2001), Banditas (2006), and Haute tension (2003), comes a film full of action, adventure, and good old fashioned badassary that will leave you smitten or at the least quite….


The Bugg Speaks

As with his first film, Morel is once again working from a script by Luc Besson, the writer/director behind such classics as Leon: The Professional and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc ( on which Morel served as cinematographer). Besson, who also produced, takes a story that we’ve all heard before, a father perusing his kidnapped daughter, and improves on the formula. Neeson’s CIA agent is a not only the put upon, dejected man we might expect him to be; he’s also a cold, calculated man who will stop at nothing to get his daughter. This includes more than a few scenes where you’re left with a feeling like “did he really do what I think he just did”, and yeah, he did.


While I do wish there had been a more fleshed out narrative, the film does feel like the emotions of Neeson’s character, determined, focused, and frenetic. For a straight up action film, I don’t know how you could do much better than this in recent memory. So many films in this genre now have to be dressed up with super heroes or science fiction, and Taken hearkens back to heyday of actors like Charles Bronson. I could easily see Charlie in this role, and that’s a good thing. I only hope Morel can stay on this path (and he should as Taken was sleeper hit) and deliver more action that relies on the real world and not a ton of flashy effects.
Bugg Rating
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Dear Mr. Bugg: I had not considered this film but will now. Love Neeson - he always makes the physical completely real (see Rob Roy). I like your observations about lack of exaggeration making violence more real. I'm in. -- Mykal
ReplyDeleteAfter I've seen the lacklustre Transporter 3, I was fairly happy to see Besson write the script of a decent and simple film. Of course, the film needed a little bit more character development considering the place that Famke Jansen and Maggie Grace occupy in the film. However, Neeson was so convincing!
ReplyDeleteAs for the action scenes, there's no doubt I liked their realism.
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ReplyDelete(Had some weird problems posting there… got it fixed.)
ReplyDeleteI've got this in the Netflix queue, right at the top, and am now looking forward to it! Thanks Bugg.
This was so amazing. It's the one film in the past 5 years that has made me stand up in my seat in the theatre and go HOLY SHIT, THAT WAS AWESOME.
ReplyDeleteyeah, i'm 15 sometimes. sue me.