http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/Taken-poster-0.jpg

What did everyone think of Taken? - directed by Pierre Morel, written by Luc Besson With Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace and Xander Berkeley - yeah George Mason from 24's CTU...and talking of 24 seeing as star Kiefer Sutherland in fellow French directing sensation Alexandre Aja's Mirrors (out soon and not supposed to be that great) maybe you would like to talk about that as well in here..a general talk about French directing wonderkids and whether their latest films are up to the very high standard they have set at the beginning of their careers (i'm thinking maybe Sutherland would have been better in the Neeson role with it reformulated as 24 in France - the movie)

I watched Mirrors on Sunday i did think it was gonna be $h!t but its pretty good watched the strangers after and well thats just an awful flim!

I thought "Taken" was a decent enough Action Thriller, although the leaps of logic the film makes are pretty unbelievable... We're expected to believe, for example, that in the car chase in the construction site, Liam Neeson's 4x4 can take several collisions and emerge without a scratch, we're also expected to believe that Neeson is somehow a "superman" and can snap limbs like dry twigs while at the same time shrugging off bullets, beatings, etc.... :lol: :lol: I also didn't like the thinly-veiled mysoginy of the film, Angela is considered disposable and is punished by the plot because she's not a virgin and is sexually active (I mean, was there really a need to kill her...?), but Neeson's daughter survives because she's the "good girl".. Please, what sexist cr@p that is and it does spoil the film somewhat.... Also, one would think that if Saudi Sheiks are looking for "new wives" for their Harems, wouldn't they actually go after the blonde girl in any case...? A certain type of rich, Arab "gentleman" has predilictions for fair skin and blonde hair.... I'd be tempted to say that the film offers up the usual Anti-French stereotypes (ie, corrupt, sneaky, criminal..), but it's actually written by Luc Besson as opposed to an American writer and made by Besson's own company.... :lol: :lol:

 

I dont think the comparison to the Bourne films (splashed on the cinema posters to sell the film, so they make a rod for their own back here, and make themselves open to harsh comparisons and criticism) is really a very favourable one at all... The Bourne films were clearly superior to this, this is just a B-Movie in comparison, entertaining for the 90 minutes, yes, but just not in the same league as Bourne or Bond... Also, in the Bourne films, when you have a car chase, the cars take a serious battering, and the direction, action sequences and camerawork are all streets ahead technically....

 

On the plus side - the film benefits from having someone as capable as Neeson in the lead role, he's believable in a way that someone like Jason Statham just wouldn't be, the best bits are actually the talking sequences - Neeson on the phone to the kidnappers and then later the sequence where Neeson confronts the kidnappers after disguising himself as his "Cop" buddy... Statham trying to do either of these sequences would be just plain laughable... Xander Berkely it has to be said, is criminally underused, but thank GOD we didn't get some kind of really convoluted, silly "twist" in which it turned out it was Berkely's character who orchestrated the kidnap of his stepdaughter, that would just have been utterly brainless....

 

File under - "Okay, but nothing special"...

 

As for "Mirrors".... Oh dear, another cover version of an Asian horror film.... This time the Korean film "Into The Mirror"..... The original is a fairly minor film tbh, not in the league of "Dark Water", "Ringu", "The Eye" or "A Tale of Two Sisters"... I've usually got time for Keifer Sutherland though, he's okay most of the time... I'm disappointed in Messrs Aja and Levasseur though, they've done one genuinely brilliant film ("Haute Tension"), which really tore the "slasher" film a new arsehole, but since then, what a remake (although admittedly not a bad one) of "Hills Have Eyes", the rather rubbish "P2" and now another remake..... Oh dear, I think they're rather tarnishing their reps.... Especially seeing as how the absolutely superb "Martyrs" (another French-produced horror) is about to come through snarling and blowing away everything in its wake (or it least it would if it wasn't for its more modest, Indie origins), I mean, sorry but F/UCK "Saw 5", see "Martyrs" instead if you get a chance, bloody AMAZING film which makes the "Saw" franchise just look like a naff Marilyn Manson or Slipknot video... After seeing this at "Fright Fest", I think the term "Best New Horror Hopeful" is about to be afforded to Pascal Laugier, the writer/director of this amazing film, "Torture Porn" with all the extremeness, BUT with brains, believable, sympathetic characters, who would ever think it...?

 

I thought "Taken" was a decent enough Action Thriller, although the leaps of logic the film makes are pretty unbelievable... We're expected to believe, for example, that in the car chase in the construction site, Liam Neeson's 4x4 can take several collisions and emerge without a scratch, we're also expected to believe that Neeson is somehow a "superman" and can snap limbs like dry twigs while at the same time shrugging off bullets, beatings, etc.... :lol: :lol: I also didn't like the thinly-veiled mysoginy of the film, Angela is considered disposable and is punished by the plot because she's not a virgin and is sexually active (I mean, was there really a need to kill her...?), but Neeson's daughter survives because she's the "good girl".. Please, what sexist cr@p that is and it does spoil the film somewhat.... Also, one would think that if Saudi Sheiks are looking for "new wives" for their Harems, wouldn't they actually go after the blonde girl in any case...? A certain type of rich, Arab "gentleman" has predilictions for fair skin and blonde hair.... I'd be tempted to say that the film offers up the usual Anti-French stereotypes (ie, corrupt, sneaky, criminal..), but it's actually written by Luc Besson as opposed to an American writer and made by Besson's own company.... :lol: :lol:

 

I dont think the comparison to the Bourne films (splashed on the cinema posters to sell the film, so they make a rod for their own back here, and make themselves open to harsh comparisons and criticism) is really a very favourable one at all...

 

but against some of the episodes of 24 a very apt comparision...(oh no!! have to go as the cougar's after me!!! :lol: )

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/de/Mountain_lion.jpg

For Mirrors, they may have well just had the main character as Jack Bauer. :lol: Srsly, Keifer Sutherland is amazing but he was just Jack Bauer with a young family in this film.