3 ridiculous scenes you forgot Mark I'm afraid: - Neeson speech on immigrants abusing the system. - The daughter's best friend found dead after being constantly raped and drugged on a bed is not once mentioned at the end of the film. - Neeson super drug that helps a drug addict to recover from drug addiction.
He killed maybe 20 to 30 people at the end but to be honest by that time I had lost count and all I was thinking about was I bet the guy steering the boat is going get the sack!
One way to see it I see it as satire of how US right wingers often use European as a dirty word, how the french are too camp, too bohemian as a reflexive call back to the genesis of the US as a colony that fought and won its independence and thus how the old world of Europe is bad
+Badge Man Its a bit of both, joining the likes of running man, rollerball, death race 2000 etc. of seeming junky exploitation films that entertain in a visceral manner but also have something to say.
People please this film is garbage with no depth. Mark was right to take the mickey out of it. Stop claiming Mark hates it because its "anti-European/sexist" its a dumb B movie with no substance. And even Nesson knows it. The phone call bit is the only memorable/good bit the rest they may as well of cast Bruce Willis and called it Die Hard 48 or painted some Transfromers in the background or hell even a Sharknado.
@Tralman1965 But a film that contains NOTHING BUT action and fighting is boring. My high water mark for the action genre is Die Hard. Taken is absolutely nothing compared to Die Hard.
I thought this was a rather good stab at a film that 15-20 years ago would've been a Schwarzenegger or Willis vehicle. Bad stuff happens so he has to go find out what happened and kill a few people. I thought the tone was perfect and I even started expecting the protagonist's bursts of controlled violence that were hinted at in his 'I have certain skills' speech near the start.
Well, that scene is quite shocking and at the end of the film, guess what? The daughter is all smiles and happy as if NOTHING had happened. Dreadful film.
I don't understand why he is so upset over it taking place in Europe, and that the bad guys are from Europe. Is France totally free of crime? Is their no human trafficking in Europe? If it had been in South America, would he be upset at the portrayal of Brazilians as kidnappers? He seems unreasonably touchy on the subject. Neeson's character wasn't upset she was traveling alone specifically because it was Europe, it was because she was alone.
The point is her dad says I've been to Europe don't go on your own, as if it's some dangerous hell hole, and then within ten minutes of them arriving they are kidnapped, it's ridiculous. I like the film, Kenmore totally right though, especially from a European perspective as the USA is a lot more dangerous than here and a 17 and 19 year old going to USA would not be seen as horrifying for us. So why a safer place would be seen as this awful thing, and if you follow U2 even worse is baffling.
Despite A lazy script, unfocused direction & poor score, the film delivers strong acting, intense action, A great story & an iconic threatening message. (64%) (3/5 stars) (mixed to positive)
I loved taken. Sometimes you just want to see a movie with action and fighting. They can't all be heart wrenching dramas or long winded looks into the soul.
Kermode is that kind of guy who would never enjoy a slice of pizza 🍕 in New York & complains about the missing quality,texture he once had in Italy, the only pizza he ever had 😂
Of course the "foreigners" are the baddies as it is set in Europe! It also happens to be very watchable. It's like watching a Jason Statham movie but a lot better.
@WeAllReviewMovies That isnt true. I once won Liam Neeson in an Ebay auction, and I have to say...he arrived in the mail 3 weeks late, and very badly packaged.
agreed although Nolan's fanboy's really annoy me - his films are complex but usually quite easy to get by the end as long as you concentrate but there not that intelligent. Just slightly more intelligence blockbusters (besides Memento and Prestige) Agree about the films that are half way between the two thought, hate them.
It's the most offensive film everywhere. All foreigners are drug peddling, child murdering paedophiles and they're all working for an Arab. The film was just ridiculously bad. It was just laughably bad. It could have been a rather tongue in cheek hysterically funny film. It was just awful. Kind of like Hostel. Racist, vulgar, cheap and tacky. Apparently 3 Days to Kill starred Kevin Costner because even Liam Neeson passed on it. It's ironic that at this rate now, the best film Liam Neeson will have starred in will be Star Wars Episode 1.
Actually it was rather good. It was a rather nuts-and-bolts action/revenge flick. I wouldn't say the portrayals of 'foreigners' are offensive at all. Saying the film is racist is like saying there are no bad Arabs, no bad French people, or indeed no bad Americans. The sex trafficking portrayed in the film does happen, it happens in many countries. People just don't want to believe it. So while I don't think it's wrong to say American views of 'Europeans' are stereotypical in general, this film isn't an example of that. It has some bad people in it, that happen to be Arabs...and you find this offensive.
Mark repeatedly refers to Neeson as "Liam Neesum" throughout this review and even bungles it even further to just "Leesum" at one point. I don't know if he genuinely doesn't know his name or is so excited he keeps messing it up.
@@chrisr6710 Thanks. Of course, Leon. Excellent film. I saw Fifth Element recently for the first time in decades and yep that's a good'un and also funnier than I remembered. I seem to remember seeing Big Blue a very long time ago which I think was his also but don't remember anything at all about it apart from some diving!
This movie succeeds at doing what it does and it does it very well. It doesn't need to do more than that. It's a blast for 90 minutes straight of liam neeson being a badass
This is a perfect example of why I listen to Mark Kermode for the entertainment, not his film reviews. His cliches are cliches. They seemed to have only half watched the movie, then saw fit to rubbish it based on not giving it a chance.
First time I saw "Taken" - yeah quite good for an action flick. Then I got forced to watch it 2-3 more times in my first year of university and i fucking hate it now.
Its not a 'happy/unhappy coincidence' that she happens to be on the phone to him when she's kidnapped, she sees whats happening to her friend and so automatically calls her dad who she hoped would know what to do.
I’m here from the future to say that she called her dad back (after missing his call) and then witnessed her friend being kidnapped, so Mark was correct.
the captain? I assume old cappy is not a threat, and needs to stay in control of the boat. He will be locked away in the cabin upstairs. Liam would have come up later and told him to pull into to a dock - a unnecessary scene you could work out yourself. Mark is always going on about 45 minutes too long, well here's some time saving :)
I can't lie, this film is a guilty pleasure of mine. The thing that I've always found hilarious is the phone call. If I was one of the kidnappers, I'd probably just laugh down the phone.
The film is a French film, produced and written by Frenchmen, set mostly in France starring an Irishman. Anti-European? Sorry that's like saying Lethal Weapon is anti-American because all the villains in that film were American.
Cybopath You can make a movie that caters to somebody other than yourself. Even if it was made by Europeans, it can still be grossly stereotypical towards Europeans, probably by design. If the director, producer, etc. think 300 million Americans will be more receptive because a movie portrays everybody as a caricature, then that's how they'll make the movie.
Or maybe Kermode is talking pretentious bollocks as usual. This is from somebody who has recently read both of his books and watched a lot of his reviews here on the tube on the recommendation of a colleague. While I do find him entertaining and would even say I like him on occasion, he tends to talk out of his arse a lot.
apart from the u2 shite!! a fucking loved this film!!! die hard in europe!! fucking great!! kermode (who i like) has read far too much in to this..and i think if william freidken had made this exact movie!! he would be praising it!! like he did with bug!! which in my opinion was pure pish!! altho i love william freidken movies (apart from bug)
Really doesn't matter. It was an awful film. Just consider how bad the characters were in it. They were all basically stereotypes, from the obnoxious ex-wife (that does and says everything she can to annoy the audience) to the Saudi guy at the end. The girl was fucking annoying, if I were her father, I'd have told the kidnappers to make sure she doesn't come back. Yet what wound me up the most about the film was Neeson's character seemed to get weird sexual pleasure from torturing his victims.
