Henry Saw: Taken

Kick-Ass.


First of all, watch the trailer for the film, which immediately enters the Trailer Hall of Fame:



There is not much for me to say here - I know Ben will add more thoughts soon - but I just wanted to strongly recommend you go see Taken. It is a silly, incredibly fun, suprising (kinda), and fully satisfying action movie.

Liam Neeson plays a role that Harrison Ford could have taken in the late 90's; he's an obsessed man looking for his family (this is where my uncle Craig reminds us that this role was really created by John Wayne in The Searchers but I dislike that movie so I'm going to ignore that). Taken movie has a grit and edge to it which makes it feel more like a 70's revenge movie or an 80's low-budget action film than anything you would expect to see in 2009.

Taken has a solid car chase, a great hand-to-hand fight, and two fun shootouts. What more could you want? This is the film that Quantum of Solace wanted to be in someways. This is a very enjoyable little action film and I'm happy it found an audience in this dark days of movies (January and February are just brutal months).

Is Taken a very post-Bourne, post-24, film? Yeah, you can see the influences, but Taken is so proud of what it is, and what it isn't, that it is very easy to look past the echos of other movies and TV shows and enjoy it for what it is.

See Taken. It's the best film of the year thus far and I'm not sure I'll have a better time with a movie for the rest of the year.

Grade: A

Best Scene: Liam Neeson on the phone (the scene in the trailer)