Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen

Directed by: Pierre Morel

20th Century Fox

The Official Site of Taken

Discuss Taken on the boards!

Late spring I began receiving these e-mails about a movie called Taken. Apparently the good people of Australia were treated nearly a year ago to the release of this Liam Neeson thriller about a man in search of his missing daughter and they’ve since been spreading the word about how brutally beautiful the gritty, vigilante adventure is. It sounded awesome but unlikely or at the very least – unexpected. I had trouble picturing the soft-spoken, Academy Award nominee cracking skulls even in the name of a missing kid. As I learned soon after entering the theater, Taken is a true lesson in how powerful the unexpected can be because, even with the luxury of advanced warning, I’m not sure anything could have prepared me for what went down in there.

Taken is truly a departure for Neeson. Not to say that we’ve never seen him flex his muscles on screen before, but there’s a difference between carrying a light saber and using it on someone. I swear, he’s the only featured Jedi Knight in Star Wars NOT to have cut off some dude’s arm. All he does in that movie is Jedi-mind-trick single mothers and explain what medicloreans are to dim little children. In Taken we get to see him at his most intense, somehow finding a combination between the calm, cool character we’ve all come to love and a violent madman that makes Jason Bourne look like a whiney little girl looking for his mommy.

Neeson plays an ex-CIA specialist who hears his daughter’s kidnapping over a cellular phone and promises the kidnappers that if they don’t release her… he will kill them. The chilling phone call begins what turned out to be a pretty straightforward kidnap thriller where Nesson uses clues to work his way up the bad guy ladder. It’s in how he works that the movie is so unexpectedly awesome. You see the trick is – He’s completely insane.

I wish there were an ease way to explain how insane he is. Somehow saying, “innocents are shot to emphasize a point� and “there’s a light bulb torture scene that the writers of 24 wish they could’ve come up with� sounds like hollow praise when you find out what this movie really has in store for you. Like I said, I was warned but still walked in unprepared. Perhaps it’s best if I allow you the same luxury.

Neeson adepts to the intensity upgrade beautifully. I think that I was hesitant to accept him as the badass only because I’ve become so comfortable with him as the sweet-natured father figure that is as likely to punch me in the face, as he is to jump off a bridge. No face is safe now and honestly, we’re probably better off for it. The rest of the cast is sparse because none of them stay alive long enough to get their name above the credits, but I was impressed by Maggie Grace who plays the missing daughter. We’ve seen her in a enough roles to know that she’s not as naïve and innocent as the estranged daughter she plays in Taken. I thought she did a great job conveying the gullibility of a young girl that doesn’t know how dangerous the world out there is. Some obvious foreshadowing that really just made Neeson look cooler.

The beautiful thing about Taken is its simplicity. I found myself early on looking for red herrings, looking for the shady best friend that would inevitably turn out to be the mastermind behind the daughter’s disappearance. But that’s just nonsense. Taken isn’t hiding anything from you. Everything is on the surface for all to see. There’s no big twist to get wrapped up in, just a series of believable progressions that don’t worry about being clever as much as they worry about being entertaining. It’s hard not to love something so brutally honest. …and unexpectedly good.

Rating: 8 out of 10 - Neeson has played a handful of warriors like Rob Roy, capable threats like his character in Batman Begins, and whatever the hell he was doing in Darkman, but Taken is easily the most cold-blooded we’ve ever seen him and I would love to see more. Unfortunately a film like this isn’t built for sequels unless the kid gets kidnapped again and honesty… how often can you save the same kid?

Yeah, I would say that Taken is DVD worthy. In terms of modern thrillers it’s pretty straightforward so there’s nothing to be gained from repeat viewings in terms of “depth of story�. But the movie’s strengths, including its brutal violence and quick pacing, should play just as well the second time around. Plus, as twisted as this may sound, Neeson’s viciousness is the kind of thing you’re going to want to share with your friends.

We’ve reached a point in JLCM where certain things are understood. Or I’d like to think we have. For instance, if the character of Joe is wearing an eye patch or talking about his difficult to manage daughter then it should be understood by the reader that these events are taking place in the future. I thought long and hard about putting a caption at the beginning of today’s comic to let you know what year it was but decided that you guys have smartened up and don’t need to be spoon fed the silly facts like date and time. For those of you that are a touch forgetful, have a quick walk down memory lane - (The first appearance of Swithcblade Dunn. The first appearance of future Joe. A rare moment of father/daughter bonding and of course Irv making his move.)

I’m very anxious to be a father but I have as many fears as I do hopes. I’m terrified that my kids will one day hate me so I think I use this whole, “my kids are going to be jerks� approach as a defense mechanism. I of course would be horrified at the kidnapping of my child let alone anyone’s but if, in the comic, I make the kid a terror and have her punishing the villains worse than they conceivably could punish her, then there’s humor in there. …Somewhere.

Echelon Conspiracy - I was really impressed by the concept behind the trailer of this tight little thriller about a phone that knows everything and can make you rich as easily as it can make you dead. I was confused though at why someone like Shane West got the leading part. Don’t get me wrong; West is a pretty cool guy he’s just hasn’t had any leading man luck in his career. Seeing him front and center just had me thinking, “What, was Shia busy?�

He wasn’t busy, he just made this movie already. I think Echelon Conspiracy’s biggest obstacle to overcome is that it will be seen as a poor man’s Eagle Eye, a movie that most people already turn their noses down at. If it can escape that kind of stereotyping it might actually work.

My greatest fear is that the movie, like the trailer, will abandon its unique idea of the perfect phone and an army of men that covet it, for an over-orchestrated flash of explosions. If it were really such a great idea would it need the big boom as an exclamation point? We’ll see.

Less than a week until New York Comic Con and I wanted to make sure that any of you that are attending make a point to swing by the booth. Part of the incentive this year to lure you over at all our shows is a series of JLCM tour cards. Since 2009 is the first year that the JLCM book is available we wanted to offer free stuff to people that make an effort to pick up a copy in person. To everyone that purchase a copy of the book as well as one of our cool shirts, we’ll toss in a free tour card specifically made for the show you bought the book at.

Each card will be made in the theme of the city the show takes place in so for New York you’ll get this image of Yeo and I as Kong and Faye. As the year goes on you’ll see the JLCM crew as the cast of Rocky, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and of course an ode to zombies for our trip to Pittsburgh Comic Con. No clue what I’m going to do for Baltimore… but there’s some time before I have to decide for the remaining three shows.

The cards will be printed on photo paper and signed and numbered for authenticity. They’ll also be limited in number but available for purchase without the combo as well. (I don’t expect you guys to be buying 7 copies of the book and 7 shirts just to complete a set.) In total I’ll print 50 copies of each card and bring only 30 to the show – first come first serve. The other 20 will be sold online for 5 dollars each just as an opportunity for the purists that don’t live in the area to get the full tour card set. Be sure to stop by booth #2452 early on during the show to be one of the first people to get a JLCM book and tour card!

Thanks so much for reading, guys. Enjoy the Super Bowl!