Luc Besson’s latest action vehicle succeeds in a completely adequate way.  Unintentionally subtle and steely by design, Taken, directed by Pierre Morel, delivers exactly what you want: revenge.  No more, no less.  It doesn’t have the gravitas and grittiness of Tony Scott’s Man on Fire; it fails to capture the depth and drive of Paul Greengrass’ The Bourne Ultimatum; however, it does have revenge, which is fun for the whole family.  Why do you think that roughly 87% of Chinese martial arts movies have a plot involving revenge for the murder of someone’s father?  Because revenge is easy.  Revenge is what you use when you don’t want a story; when you just want fights, bullets, and straight-up shit exploding.  You love it, I love it, and Taken delivers revenge with extra cheese in 30 minutes or less.

Liam Neeson plays a guy who’s name I honestly can’t remember at the writing of this review because I was paying too much attention to who he would kill next and how (for the purpose of not being a complete tool, www.imdb.com lists his character’s name as Bryan Mills).  He’s a former CIA operative, who, according to the movie trailer, has “a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career.”  While it’s possible he’s referring to his expert needlepoint, these “skills” most likely refer to his ability to reign down Hell upon any one that stands between him and his daughter (Maggie Grace), who has been kidnapped during a trip to Paris.  On a side note, apparently the only direction Pierre Morel gave to Ms. Grace was that she should run in all of her scenes.  Every.  Single.  One.  Seriously, if there is actually a seventeen year-old that acts like that, she’s either a world-class sprinter or in need of a severe dose of Ritalin.  For some reason, they also threw Famke Janssen into to the mix as Bryan’s estranged wife.  I say “For some reason” because a hedgehog could have played her role to no ill effect.  How you ask?  Well, let me explain…

I highly doubt anyone rolls into Taken hoping to see a commentary on the breakdown of the US family unit or the overt imperialist tendencies of the recently expunged Bush administration.  This movie offers you one thing: a completely inaccurate look into the European sex slave market…and revenge.  And if you don’t like it, Liam Neeson will come to your house, surprise you with a karate chop as you come around a corner, and shoot you point blank in the chest (which happened at least 9 times during the course of the movie – it was awesome).  Laura Karpman’s score is an appropriate collection of coalescing tones that effectively disappear into the revenge.  The camera work is second-rate Greengrass, but at least it captures the revenge.  Honestly, even the action isn’t that great; it’s just a vehicle for, you guessed it – the revenge.

Taken is that piece of gum you chew for 10 minutes then spit out and never think about again, even though it was good while you had it.  This movie is pure entertainment and, in a way, that’s all cinema is supposed to be.  It doesn’t have to be an agent for social change or a collection of disjointed images passively passed off as “art.”  What it really comes down to is the fact that it’s completely worth the $12 and 90 minutes of your time to see Liam Neeson get his revenge on.

I can’t wait until Crank 2: High Voltage hits theaters.

Noose is ridiculously full of great actors, yet Denis Leary gets the lead… what is more amazing is that the film doesn’t actually suffer too much, it’s kind of a Goodfellas, but made by mature students instead of a man named Scorsese – this is shame cause Ted Demme, the dude who did direct it has done much better work from behind the camera before and after this.

(This flick seems not only to go by at least three different titles, all associated imagery is shit – hence the arguably arbitrary image – what do reckon Saddam’s favourite movie was?)

Vandaag is het een spannende dag. Onze nicht Famke gaat namelijk naar het ziekenhuis. Ze wordt daar geopereerd aan haar oren. Deze staan, net als bij ome Jeroen en ome Paul vroeger, nogal recht. En dat vinden sommige mensen niet mooi.

Dus daarom; wegwezen met die typische Martens-oren, we willen er niets meer over horen

En nu een hele week verwennerij voor Famke. Want die is ontzettend stoer! Tante Miriam gaat gauw nieuwe oorbellen voor haar uitzoeken.