Thursday, April 29, 2010
Saturday, June 27, 2009
I'll get to #9 eventually...
OK, I know I said my next post would be #9 on my list of favorite movie makers, but the wife and I just watched Taken with Liam Neeson, and, OH BABY, that movie was 90 minutes of pure pleasure. All you really need to know about the film is that Liam Neeson's daughter gets kidnapped and he proceeds to KILL EVERYONE!
If you like the Liam Neeson who caught Tim Roth's sword
with his bare hand before killing him in Rob Roy, then you'll love Taken.
The whole movie is about Liam Neeson being sick.
Taken is the type of old school action movie I've been missing for many years. Hollywood used to crank out awesome R-rated action movies like this all the time. A simple, well-crafted story, with a sick actor killing numerous people in brutal ways -- all in under 90 minutes. Action movies for the last decade or so all seem to be PG-13 pieces of teeny bop crap aimed at 12-17 year old ass clowns.
Action movies used to be entertainment for grown men who work, watch sports and drink beer. When a man would go to the video store to pick up the latest action picture, he wouldn't wind up with some goreless POS music video starring Paul Walker or whoever the latest hairless, shirtless pansy with perfect eye brows that 15-year-olds think is "OMG!! So hotttttttt!!". He would be getting a film with a story that was interesting enough and told to him straight. It would be filled with moments that make him say "Oh baby!" or whatever he likes to exclaim when he sees a savage beating or gruesome execution performed by a respectable, well-trained man on a worthy mission. At the same time though, it would be a movie you could watch with your wife or girlfriend. A fine action picture used to be a date movie as much as anything else because, lets face it, women as much as men like to see a man take-no-prisoners and kill everyone in his way to save the ones he loves. It's dreamy.
Well that's the kind of old school action picture Taken is. It's a mature, kill-filled romp for both the intelligent film goer and the dude who only wants to know if the film "gots lotsa action". Seriously, in my three years working at a video store, without fail the first thing I'd get asked whenever I recommended a film was "Does it got alotta action?" That is all they wanted to know.
Another thing Taken has plenty of, which I've been missing in my action movies ever since Arnold, Seagal and Stallone pretty much retired (not counting Rambo 4): FATAL NECK BREAKS! Ever since I was little, one of my favorite things in action movies was the instant neck break only the hero could perform. They'd break necks easier than I can crack my knuckles. But for some unexplainable reason neck breaking seemed to all of a sudden grow out of fashion. I've been dying for some classic neck breaks for years. Well if you're anything like me, you're in luck as Taken is loaded with all sorts of 80s-style neck breaks.
Taken is like a cross between Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commando and Paul Schrader's Hardcore. Now I'm sure most of you will not be familiar with the movie Hardcore, but it is one of the underrated gems of American cinema. From 1979 and directed by Paul Schrader (writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull), Hardcore is basically a modern retelling of John Ford's The Searchers (Schrader's favorite film). It's got George C. Scott in the John Wayne role, and his daughter has runaway from their conservative, Calvinist family, only to wind up making underground pornos. Scott goes after her, following her into this totally f'd up underworld of filth and sin, and tries to bring her home. The film is one dark, gritty, disturbing trip into hell, with George C. Scott hollering all sorts of sick dialogue as only he can (and as only Schrader can write).
Here's Scott in Hardcore. Man, this movie rules. I gotta watch it again.
Anyway, Taken is like Hardcore meets Commando, and I assume you've seen Commando; if not, rent that with Hardcore, The Searchers and Taken for the ultimate dad-on-a-mission-to-bring-home-his-daughter quadruple bill (although in The Searchers John Wayne plays the girl's uncle instead of dad, but whatever, you get the idea).
Well that's it for me. Go watch Taken; it's a solid flick, and we'll see if I get to my ninth favorite filmmaker with my next post.
If you like the Liam Neeson who caught Tim Roth's swordwith his bare hand before killing him in Rob Roy, then you'll love Taken.
The whole movie is about Liam Neeson being sick.
Taken is the type of old school action movie I've been missing for many years. Hollywood used to crank out awesome R-rated action movies like this all the time. A simple, well-crafted story, with a sick actor killing numerous people in brutal ways -- all in under 90 minutes. Action movies for the last decade or so all seem to be PG-13 pieces of teeny bop crap aimed at 12-17 year old ass clowns.
Action movies used to be entertainment for grown men who work, watch sports and drink beer. When a man would go to the video store to pick up the latest action picture, he wouldn't wind up with some goreless POS music video starring Paul Walker or whoever the latest hairless, shirtless pansy with perfect eye brows that 15-year-olds think is "OMG!! So hotttttttt!!". He would be getting a film with a story that was interesting enough and told to him straight. It would be filled with moments that make him say "Oh baby!" or whatever he likes to exclaim when he sees a savage beating or gruesome execution performed by a respectable, well-trained man on a worthy mission. At the same time though, it would be a movie you could watch with your wife or girlfriend. A fine action picture used to be a date movie as much as anything else because, lets face it, women as much as men like to see a man take-no-prisoners and kill everyone in his way to save the ones he loves. It's dreamy.
Well that's the kind of old school action picture Taken is. It's a mature, kill-filled romp for both the intelligent film goer and the dude who only wants to know if the film "gots lotsa action". Seriously, in my three years working at a video store, without fail the first thing I'd get asked whenever I recommended a film was "Does it got alotta action?" That is all they wanted to know.
Another thing Taken has plenty of, which I've been missing in my action movies ever since Arnold, Seagal and Stallone pretty much retired (not counting Rambo 4): FATAL NECK BREAKS! Ever since I was little, one of my favorite things in action movies was the instant neck break only the hero could perform. They'd break necks easier than I can crack my knuckles. But for some unexplainable reason neck breaking seemed to all of a sudden grow out of fashion. I've been dying for some classic neck breaks for years. Well if you're anything like me, you're in luck as Taken is loaded with all sorts of 80s-style neck breaks.
Taken is like a cross between Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commando and Paul Schrader's Hardcore. Now I'm sure most of you will not be familiar with the movie Hardcore, but it is one of the underrated gems of American cinema. From 1979 and directed by Paul Schrader (writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull), Hardcore is basically a modern retelling of John Ford's The Searchers (Schrader's favorite film). It's got George C. Scott in the John Wayne role, and his daughter has runaway from their conservative, Calvinist family, only to wind up making underground pornos. Scott goes after her, following her into this totally f'd up underworld of filth and sin, and tries to bring her home. The film is one dark, gritty, disturbing trip into hell, with George C. Scott hollering all sorts of sick dialogue as only he can (and as only Schrader can write).
Here's Scott in Hardcore. Man, this movie rules. I gotta watch it again.Anyway, Taken is like Hardcore meets Commando, and I assume you've seen Commando; if not, rent that with Hardcore, The Searchers and Taken for the ultimate dad-on-a-mission-to-bring-home-his-daughter quadruple bill (although in The Searchers John Wayne plays the girl's uncle instead of dad, but whatever, you get the idea).
Well that's it for me. Go watch Taken; it's a solid flick, and we'll see if I get to my ninth favorite filmmaker with my next post.
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