Taken is the girl you bring home and sleep with that you don't really want to brag about to your friends, but at the same time you wouldn't care if they found out
Except it has a fantastic actor as the lead and not some C-list 90s has-been. And it doesn't have terribly cheesy dialogue, its entertaining throughout and it has a lot of unlikeable shitheads getting worked over in creative ways by Liam Neeson. Not everything has to be film noir. I don't think anyone is arguing it should have won Oscars. That doesn't mean you have to take some contrarian stance to its entertainment value and then name drop some obscure Asian thriller to prove your point. But it is a movie that when its on, find yourself watching large portions of it. And its just short enough that you usually watch till the end. Besides, who wants to root for Albanians anyways?
Well, Albanians ARE pure evil. Turning bad actresses into sex slaves, for shame. AGAIN: I don't hate the movie. Look, I like action films as much as the next. Noir is usually overrated cinema that looks good but is eye candy. I was just originally saying that the reason this film made so mch money was it's trailer/movie previews, and nothing else. That talking on the phone shit/daughter dragged away screaming is what sold it. Period. Had it just been another typical thriller trailer, the film would not have grossed ten million its first weekend and then slip into obscurity, I bet my life on it. How many Liam Neeson-starring films have you guys seen in the theatre between the releases of Schindler's List and Taken?
I will go on record saying that Liam Neeson does his best ass-kicking on the big screen as a Scottish cattleman in Rob Roy.
This is a fair point, I guess myself and others were not judging it based on box office merit, but the film as a whole. I feel its taken almost a cult following on to this point. I never saw it in theaters but have introduced many new fans to it through DVD or when its on TV. I don't see movies in theaters often, but not counting Star Wars and Batman which he wasn't the lead, but prominent, I can think of Gangs of New York, Kinsey, and Kingdom of Heaven, but he was really only the true lead in Kinsey. I think the problem was, outside of Rob Roy and Kinsey, he wasn't a lead in a bigger movie between Schindler's List and Taken.
Personally? Seraphim Falls - Main antagonist Batman Begins - Main villain/mentor Kingdom of Heaven - Most iconic character (fun fact: the last dude he kills in the fight in the woods, on hiorseback, when he breaks the arrow, is Jaime Lannister) Michael Collins - Protagonist Rob Roy - Protagonist He was also in Gangs of New York, K-19, Love Actually and the Haunting during that period, all pretty massive movies.
I like Dark Man. Taken is good, but how simply awful Taken 2 was kind knocked some of the shine off the first one for me. But, I'm sure they backed the truck up to Neeson, and he couldn't turn in down, even with the sucky script. I have no regrets defending Taken, but I am ashamed that I paid money to see Taken 2 in the theatre. Speaking of being ashamed here in the ol' WDT, am I the only one disappointed that Tx got hammered and only posted some Jennitalia-speak here instead of accidentally uploading sexy photos of her "workout" photo shoot? Just me? Okee dokee.
You know how sometimes you get an email in your inbox that says "YOU'RE VERIZON BILL IS READY YOU OWE $3399.74 PLEASE PAY IMEDIATELY" and you roll your eyes and delete? Apparently a large percentage of my office, far more than you'd expect from fucking scientists, just tried to pay some pretty substantial bills to a cell phone company that they had to realize wasn't the one they actually use. Fuck sakes.
And after (last night)... Spoiler My car, to the left. Spoiler The parking lot fiance's car is in (that one guy in the mini front-end loader did everything).
To be honest I never saw Showgirls. But if there is more Elizabeth Berkley Jiggly poon, Im sold. I'd also like to get Adam Carolla and Dana (Huell Howser) Gould's running commentary track too.