Sunday, February 8, 2009

Best so far, but it wont last long

Well I can honestly say that I wasnt at all hyped for this movie. I mean the first time I saw the trailer for it, I thought it might be interesting but after that in the weeks that followed, I just kinda lost interest. I didnt even have any plans to see this film until a buddy of mine stated that he wanted to watch it and another buddy raved on about it at great lengths on how great it was. After thinking about it, I decided that I didnt mind going to see it so why not. I can honestly state again that this is the best movie I have seen in a theater this year. Now of course its only competition has been Underworld 3 and Paul Blart: Mall Cop, so its not like this film has won anything of extreme accomplishment. Besides Im pretty sure that in about a months time that honor will go to Watchmen. Anyways, This film is pretty good, Im glad I ended up watching it and I dont feel cheated on seeing it at all. Ill probably never buy it but it is indeed worth checking out. The story revolves around a man now retired from a career in the government apparently as a spy or a "preventer" as he states in the film, played by Liam Neeson. He is now retired because he wants to spend more time with his daughter Kim, played by the annoying Maggie Grace of Lost fame. Playing his bitchy ex-wife is Famke Jannsen. After allowing his daughter to travel to Paris against his wishes, she is kidnapped and he starts immediately trying to get her back using his extensive set of skills honed into him by our government. The action for the most part is plausible, and like most action movies there is indeed the incredibly irritating shaky cam that has now somehow become a hollywood staple in these kind of films. There is no crazy way over the top scenes and it is nice to see something while inplausible at moments, someone could actually do. There are indeed shoot outs, chase scenes and several moments of Holy Crap that make this movie worth watching. My main grievance beside the shaky cam is the characterization. Now I think everyone involved played their parts to the best of their ability, I have nothing against the actors themselves, but if she was my daughter, I'd probably let her go after she is taken and then I'd ask the kidnappers if they wanted the ex-wife too. They were both extremely annoying, but they were just parts in a film and I'm sure the actors had no choice on how they had to play them. I would indeed say this was a really good film and I recommend it to anyone out there who wants to see a pretty decent action thriller. I give Taken a score on the Heath-meter of 8 out of 10.

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