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Taken, a review by goodguy

Taken (FR 2008) Written by: Luc Besson & Robert Mark Kamen Directed by: Pierre Morel Starring: Liam Neeson DVD: R2-UK Fox (Feb. 9, 2009; Extended Cut) My rating: -

Cover blurb: Liam Neeson stars in this action-packed international thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. When his estranged daughter is kidnapped in Paris, a former spy (Neeson) sets out to find her at any cost. Relying on his special skills, he tracks down the ruthless gang that abducted her and launches a one-man war to bring them to justice and rescue his daughter.

Frankly, it escapes me why everyone seems to think Taken is "Da Shit" and Punisher: War Zone is, well, just shit. Both are pretty violent action movies that can be enjoyed to some degree with the right mindset, or more precisely, the mind checked out at the door for a bowl of popcorn. Yes, one tries to be more gritty and real, the other one more comicbook-like and gory, but they are really not that different.

Except: While PWZ knows it is just trash, Taken is pretentious and manipulative. So it spends half an hour of its short 90min running time to setup its paper-thin characters, and it casts a serious actor as protagonist instead of a B-list one. Well, that doesn't work, because it raises expectations beyond the realm of mindless fun, and the script is unable to meet them.

For a vastly superior and really brilliant take on the "black ops guy rescues girl from sex slavery" scenario, I recommend David Mamet's largely ignored Spartan (2004), starring Val Kilmer.


(From goodguy's Watch Log on June 15th, 2009)

Man of the East, a review by DJ Doena

Terence Hill    ...    Sir Thomas Fitzpatrick Phillip Moore
Gregory Walcott   ...    Bull Schmidt
Yanti Somer   ...    Candida Austin
Dominic Barto   ...    Monkey Smith
Harry Carey Jr.   ...    Holy Joe
Riccardo Pizzuti   ...    Morton Clayton

Synopsis: A young Sir from England comes over to California after his father died there. He inherits his farm and meets three of his father's friends. Bu they are three gunslingers who hate progress. But over time they will become friends and change their respective lives in a way none of them had anticipated.

My Opinion: This is one of my Hill favourites. I love to see him ride bicycle through a western town and to suddenly start reciting a poem by Walt Whitman or how he tried to explain how fertile the earth on the farm is by squeezing a pile of horse shit.



(From DJ Doena's movie watchings 2009 on April 16th, 2009)

"Stargate SG-1" Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: SG-1 returns from a mission on which Daniel was exposed to a high and lethal dosis of radiation. He is still alive but he is going to die in a few hours time. Additionally there's a dispute about how the accident happened and whether Daniel has caused it. The accident - they experimented on Naqahdriah (an instable isotope of Naqahdah) - has also led to the death of some Kelownian scientists.

My Opinion: A very good farewell episode for Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks wanted to leave the show). Everyone had the chance to say goodbye to him. But it was also the episode that introduced the character of Jonas Quinn (Corin Nemec, Parker Lewis in Parker Lewis Can't Lose). I liked it.

Synopsis: Thor's ship has been destroyed by a Goa'uld Ha'tak. This means the Asgard can't enforce the Protected Planets Treaty any longer - at least not as long as their main forces are engaged in the battle against the Replicators. Therefore they ask SG-1 to evacuate the Asgard Heimdall from a planet where he conducted important research.

My Opinion: Surprisingly for the first time in the show's history this wasn't a cliffhanger. But that could be in regard to the fact that the show was sold to another network after this season. But they still managed to open more new questions instead of answering old ones - especially the question of who and what Anubis really his and where he got the technology to defeat the Asgard. The weakness of this episode was that the Asgard allegedly had no resources at the begin of the episode but could send three O'Neill class ships in the end.

The Season - My Opinion: In this season the indirect and direct confrontations with the Goa'uld have intensified again and Anubis has managed to destroy the biggest threats to the Goa'uld: the Tollans are most likely wiped out, the Tok'ra are on the run and the Asgard are no longer superior. Now the humans are standing on their own again. I liked the season even though there were many sad episodes.

(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on April 6th, 2008)