Did you see what I did there with the title?
That somewhat subtle Star Wars reference?
That somewhat subtle Star Wars reference?
Sorry, I have young Jedi apprentice in my house, there's a lot of that floating around.
Anyway....the movie Taken.
File this under the "Could have been" tab.
When Nesson fans like myself saw the trailer to this we were justifiably excited.
Nesson's had a long career, playing Jedis, Sex Doctors and Saviours of one kind or another.
On screen he's rarely boring and always watchable...
Until Now.
In Taken Nelson plays Bryan. Once he was a covert "preventer" for the CIA. He stopped bad things from happening. But in the process he lost his wife (divorce not death) and grew apart from his now 17 year old daughter, Kim.
Now Bryan's playing it safe. He's hanging up his gun and moving back to the States to reconnect with Kim.
Now let me save you 20 minutes of your time by summing up the first part of the movie.
Bryan is an ex spy.
His ex-wife thinks he's an a-hole.
His daughter still loves him.
But her new Dad bought her a horse for her birthday.
So there we are. As you may have seen in the trailer...things get going when Bryan gets a terrifying call.
Kim is being kidnapped and sold into sex-slave ring.
Of course Bryan does what any reasonable ex-spy would do.
He gets on the phone, tells the bad guys he's dangerous and he's coming for them.
Ahhh...now we're in business.
Kim is being kidnapped and sold into sex-slave ring.
Of course Bryan does what any reasonable ex-spy would do.
He gets on the phone, tells the bad guys he's dangerous and he's coming for them.
Ahhh...now we're in business.
Unfortunately what follows it a series of uneven confrontations as Bryan, who appears to be a combination of James Bond and MacGyver, plows through the competition.
Yes we get he's determined. He'll do anything to save his daughter. But watching Nesson take down baddie after baddie gets....tiring. Can no one stop this guy? In the age of The Borne Identity and Casino Royale we want our heroes to a little more human.
The director here is a same fellow that gave us the watchable martial arts movie District 13. (Beautiful poster there.) But with Taken director Pierre Morel serves up nothing new. The only thing that distinguishes Bryan from the other men-on-a-mission movies is just how far he's willing to go. For me a spy that's willing to go Guantanamo on the bad guys doesn't quite cut it. Take a pass on Taken.
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