Wednesday, September 24, 2008

TAKEN - 24 the movie

Now's not the time for dick measuring, Stuart! TAKEN is a slick, quick thriller that sticks in the throat. Liam Neeson plays a Jack-Bauer-like US special ops agent whose daughter, Kim, is like Kim Bauer, kidnapped. This being a piece of neo-con agit-prop, the kidnappers don’t have a grudge against her father, or indeed, stepfather, either of which would’ve been interesting. Rather, the kidnappers are improbably traffickers in sex slaves who have decided that their business model would be more profitable if they kidnapped rich young tourists rather than duping poor East Europeans. Now, I can see why this might save on “transport costs” but surely if you and some complicit French rozzers are running a sex-trafficking business you’d rather not attract the attention of rich, angry Yanquis parents putting pressure on the local cops via an irate US embassy?

At any rate, after half an hour of mooning over his sappy daughter, Liam Neeson jumps on a plane and heads to Paris where he single-handedly uncovers the plot and discovers his daughter while killing and torturing lots of cheese-eating surrender monkeys and evil rapist towel-heads. Yes, yes, in this world, every Frenchman carries a baguette under his arm and every Muslim want to rape young Americans. In short, TAKEN is a film whose tone and content are lifted straight out of 24 and whose entire world-view was so roundly mocked in TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE. I can’t quite believe that Liam Neeson agreed to star in such xenophobic, derivative drivel.

TAKEN was released earlier this year in France, Israel, China, South Korea, Belgium, the Netherlands, Turkey, Spain, Australia, Italy, Poland, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Russia, Thailand, Mexico and Venezuela. It opens this weekend in the UK and Portugal and next weekend in Austria and Brazil. It opens in the USA on January 23rd 2009 and in Germany on February 5th.

3 comments:

  1. Wow, you really missed the point. How exactly is this a neo-con agit prop? Because it has the message of moral relativism regarding torture and killing? Well you let me know how you react when your family member is threatened. This film has a stronger link to revenge films like Death Wish, Oldboy, or Once Upon a Time in the West than 24.

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  2. I didn't think the film was drivel, as it was too well made to be called that, but you are correct to note that it was very much like "24." It's not at all like Death Wish or Once Upon a Time in the West — Neeson is only concerned about getting his daughter back, not about taking out revenge on all of criminalkind.

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  3. Wow, this entire blog is run by idiots.

    Like it or not, this "greedy capitalistic" movie is still of a higher moral ground than "Killed 100 million people" Communism or "use feel-good methods and not logic for problems" Socialism.

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