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Taken: Neeson Brings the Pain

This girl, she was on ‘Lost’. You’re going to tell me what the hell her character was really doing there. TELL ME!!!

Rating: 9 out of 10

Sometimes it’s good to take a breather after watching a film, really take some time to process what you thought about it. Strolling out of the darkness on Friday night, I was on an adrenaline high from the film I just witnessed. I was already writing the headline in my mind, “First Perfect Score!”, “10 out of 10!”, or “I Got Taken!”, but now that I’ve had a couple days to catch my breath and really mull over the difference between the movie itself and the movie experience, I regretfully say you are going to have to wait a little while longer to hear me rant and rave about my first perfect film. But take heart, Neeson and crew came achingly close and I’m thrilled to give it the credit it deserves.

Taken is a terrifyingly simple story: Overprotective Dad find out his young and virginal daughter has been kidnapped. Of course, most fathers are going to do everything they can to get their daughter back, but in this case, “everything he can” encompasses a lot more than the usual retiree father. Calling on skills from his previous job as a “preventer” for the government, the father races off to Paris to follow his daughter’s trail and pick apart anyone and everyone who either stands in his way or had anything to do with the crime. It’s a prime example of a man on a mission and nothing in the world is going to stop him.

Simple story, right? So what could possibly make it so good or so much better than all the other ‘action/spy/thriller’ films we’ve seen in recent years? First off, Liam Neeson, who plays the incredibly dangerous dad, Bryan Mills, already brings a level of talent and pathos to the character we would have lost with a less skilled actor. Neeson is no stranger to playing undeterred heroes, in such films as Michael Collins, Rob Roy and even Schindler’s List. These were all men who were willing to step way over the line in the fight for what they believed in. Now you mix that determination with the moral ambivalence of another of Neeson’s previous creations, Darkman, and you get our paternal savior from Taken. Neeson is an unstoppable juggernaut, once set in motion he is unswerving in his determination to achieve his goal. The hero’s code has no place in the world of this character and brings a fresh feel to what normally would have been a very standard role. Picture Jason Bourne without a conscience and you’ll be right on the money. The care and ethical treatment of others is void from his actions, even those who would be considered his friends. Another reason why I liked this character so much is it reminded me of an adult version of Brick, another film with a lead character who steamrolls over everyone in his path. (If I had been reviewing film back then, Brick would have undoubtedly received a perfect score. If you haven’t seen it yet, make it a priority.) Outside of Neeson’s stoic violence, the only other actor worth mentioning is Maggie Grace, who plays Kim, the kidnapped daughter. She amazingly looks the part, even though her real age is far above the seventeen she plays in the film, but there were a few moments where she regressed a little too far, playing closer to fifteen or even thirteen. I can’t be sure whether it was a bad choice on the director, actor or if they were trying for a subliminal critique of how sheltered the character was from the real world, but either way, it just came off odd.

Continuing it’s reasons for success, Taken is also written extremely well, with a solid sense of pace and a keen eye towards the importance of development when needed. Most spy movies jump right into the espionage and a gunfight will erupt within minutes of the opening credits, but the inciting incident, the kidnapping, doesn’t actually come for at least twenty minutes. This gives the audience plenty of time to get to know daddy Mills and his daughter Kim, what their relationship is like and by the time she disappears, Mills has already had one chance to show off his skills, so the audience has a logical basis for all the damage he is about to incur on the villains. That brings up another particularly interesting twist in screenwriting; there is no antagonist character here. No villain which we can all attach our hate and anger to, the antagonist of the film is the crime itself and the society that promotes it. Each time a face or a name is revealed to be the person Mills is after, he finds them and dispatches them before anyone gets a chance to really attach anything to them. Normally this would be a failure in the writing, but screenwriters Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen achieve a lofty switch by making this movie all about the crime itself, instead of a single person. This writing duo is not unfamiliar with the action/thriller landscape, having penned the Transporter series, along with The Fifth Element, Kiss of the Dragon and Leon (the last one was Besson alone), so it doesn’t come as a big surprise that Taken has such a rich underbelly of character and subtext usually unfound in this genre.

Recommendation: A pulse pounding thriller with a slow burn to begin, this is a rare find in the cinematic world. There are moments in this film you will definitely not see coming and those alone make it worth a viewing, whether in the theater or at home. Neeson truly succeeds in making your first meeting with your girlfriend’s dad scary once more.
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Daily Musings 3/6

1 – Foamy is back, people. Let the rejoicing begin promptly.

2 – Maybe I find this amusing since I also have a line of t-shirts, but there is no doubt American Apparel’s advertising has always been borderline porn. The weird part is it’s really awkward 70′s style porn, like no one is happy to be taking part in it. So in essence, their awkwardness and possible repressed feelings from doing those shoots makes this parody video funny. I guess that’s something. [via FantasticBlognanza]

3 – You know what happens when races get too close to call? The person least confident of winning starts whining and complaining about the race being unfair. Hillary Clinton is pushing for Florida and Michigan to get their delegates in the race, which are at the moment not counted since both states violated Democratic Party rules and moved their primaries up into January. Both state knew what the ramifications were when they made the move and are only rallying about it now because the race is incredibly close. Clinton is stumping for the rights of the states and those “unheard voters” only because everyone else skipped campaigning there except her, so she won both those states. If they get added back into the count, Clinton will get a huge boost and it will also be completely unfair. The more I read about this, the more this sounds like a Bush move. Way to show you’re the candidate for change, Hillary. [via CNN]

4 – Possible good news, Swayze fans: His own doctors came out yesterday to confirm that he is battling Pancreatic Cancer, but they report that he is only inflicted with a small amount of the disease and the dire proclamations made yesterday are far from the actual diagnosis. In this case, I am in full agreement with Perez Hilton and I think we should all buy and download Swayze’s song She’s Like the Wind off ITunes and push it back into the Top 10 as a sign of support. Help perk up Dalton!!! [via People and Perez Hilton]

5 – These USB batteries could the coolest new tech trinkets I’ve seen in a very long time. The people who thought this up need to stop thinking so much and give me some of that brain power. Do they even know how long it takes me to type these things? IQ Hogs!! [via JoshSpear]

6 – Ashton Kutcher could be an evil mastermind. It turns out that he has been secretly filming a new show, in Punk’d style, but this time he is not trying to fool the celebs, but the paparazzi. The show will set up ridiculous things for the photogs to run around, freak out about and waste tons of money and time printing in their daily gossip rags, only to be exposed later as being completely duped. If you have heard rumors of Paris Hilton walking around with a spiritual guide looking like an extra from Enter the Dragon, that would one of Kutcher’s masterpieces at work. I hate to admit it, but he could be kinda brilliant. [via WWTDD]

7 – It turns out that Buffy may be gone from our TV sets, but she is living on in the comic book world and inside that six-color-press universe, she might be playing for both teams. If they had only made Sarah Michelle Gellar go down this road with Eliza Dushku on the show, honestly, rating through the roof! (not that I had any problem with Alyson Hannigan blazing the path for her, that was equally fantastic) [via Perez Hilton]

8 – This is my first attempt at posting multiple thumbnails in one post, but this is worth it. They have just released the first shots of the actors in full Watchmen costume for each of their characters. I am personally excited by this because I happen to have the honor of being friends with Malin Akerman, playing Silk Spectre. The pics are incredibly rad and only boost my confidence that Zack Snyder will make this film utterly bad-ass.

9 – Another clever group of people have found a way to continue the parody cycle for The Bourne Ultimatum. Here’s the newest volley, The Waldo Ultimatum:

10 – I posted this video once in my old MySpace blog, but this is making the rounds again and I think it highly worth mentioning one more time. Here is the Latvian Cello Choir performing Europe’s rock classic “The Final Countdown”: