Take Your Hard-Earned Money and See A Different Movie This Weekend: Our Review of "Taken 2" (2012)

Directed By: Olivier Megaton (Columbiana) 

Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen

Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and some sensuality

Run Time: 1 hour, 31 minutes

Synopsis: Some time after Bryan Mills (Neeson) saved his daughter Kim (Grace) from being kidnapped in Paris by a sex slave operation and all seems well, he invites them to vacation with him in Turkey after his finishes a bodyguard job. What he doesn’t plan on is family members of the Albanian gangsters he killed in the first movie coming after him to exact revenge for his actions.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! Last night Sarah and I braved the middle and high schoolers that congregate at the local multiplex on Friday nights (shouldn’t there be high school football going on???) to see this weekend’s new action film Taken 2. The sequel to 2008’s surprise Taken, it sees the return of Liam Neeson to his role as ex-CIA operative Bryan Mills. This time instead of his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), being kidnapped it is he and his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) who are kidnapped and Kim has to help save them.

So this was one I think we were both kind of looking forward to mainly because Taken is plain awesome and I guess it was an assumption that a sequel made by essentially the same crew as the first one would be just as badass.

Sarah: Well the first one was surprisingly scary, too, because Kim is taken in Paris which is not usually considered a dangerous city. I mean, every city has it’s dangerous parts, but she’s abducted and sold into sex slavery. That’s terrifying!

Taken 2, however, is a pure revenge movie where the father of one of the Albanian’s Bryan killed wants to kidnap him and his family and bring him back to Albania for justice.

Let’s do this a little bit differently and I’m going to let you start by telling me what YOU thought of this one.

A: To be quite honest, I wasn’t impressed. I really wanted to like it because I love the first one and I assumed this one would just be mindless fun. And at times it is, but for the most part it’s actually quite tedious because there are very slight variances between this one and the original, but not enough actual excitement or originality to make me enjoy it. Honestly I was bored a lot of the time we were watching this.

Yeah, Liam Neeson is still pretty badass as Bryan Mills. Too bad he doesn't do too many cool things like this in Taken 2.

Our Preview of This Week's New Releases (for Friday, October 5th)

Andrew: Hello readers! It's time again for a preview of this week's new theatrical releases! This week we don't have a large number of wide releases with only Taken 2, the sequel to the 2008 surprise hit action film Taken, and Tim Burton's new animated movie, Frankenweenie, which is coming out in time for Halloween.

There are some limited release films coming out as well such as Butter, The Paperboy and V/H/S but none of those are hitting our neck of the woods. That said, another limited release film that is increasing to more screens this weekend in The Perks of Being a Wallflower and you can read our five-clapboard review of that right here.

So Sarah, with only a couple of films to talk about, let's get down to it and talk intimately about Taken 2. Directed by Olivier Megaton, who directed last year’s fun Zoe Saldana action flick Columbiana and the third entry in the Jason Statham Transporter series, Taken 2 sees the return of Liam Neeson to the role of ex-CIA operative Bryan Mills.

If anyone's been living under a rock the last few years, in the original film Mills' daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), is kidnapped while on vacation in Paris by an Albanian sex trade ring and Mills goes on a rampage through Paris to get here back. In a word, it's awesome.

Sarah, all I'm looking for with this sequel is that it's just a badass. I'm expecting a pretty similar story but if the action is on par with the original, I'll be a happy man. It's written by Luc Besson, the somewhat legendary French filmmaker/writer who wrote the first one, so hopefully it'll be good.

The Trailer for "Taken 2" Makes It Looks As Good As the Original!

Andrew: Hello readers! Lots and lots of trailers coming out this week, our apologies for a being a little slow on posting some of them. We'll try to get around to as many as we can, but for now I'm posting this particular one because it looks awesome.


This is the first trailer I've seen for Taken 2, the sequel to the surprise hit Taken starring Liam Neeson a few years ago. Whereas in the first one it was Kim (played by Maggie Grace), the daughter of Neeson's Bryan Mills that was taken, this time it looks like it's Bryan that's being hunted down and his ex-wife, Lenore (played by Famke Janssen) is abducted. At least that's all the trailer shows, I expect there to be more to the story.


In the meantime, check it out!

Taken 2 brings back all three of Neeson, Grace and Janssen, is produced by Luc Besson, and comes out on October 5.

A New Home Away From Home: Sarah's Review of "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" (2011)

Directed By: John Madden (Shakespeare in Love)

Starring: Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Grace, Tom Wilksinson, Dev Patel

Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and language

Synopsis: A group of British retirees decide to "outsource" their retirement to less expensive and seemingly exotic India. Enticed by advertisements for the newly restored Marigold Hotel, they arrive to find the palace a shell of its former self. Written by Fox Searchlight (courtesy of IMDb)

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! In last week’s preview we chatted about a film that was just expanded to wide release last Friday, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, starring some famous British actors like Judi Dench (Casino Royale) and Billy Nighy (Love, Actually). I did not end up seeing it, but Sarah did and so I interviewed her for her review of it.

So Sarah, the first thing I want to ask is what your favorite aspect of it was?

Sarah: Oh just the feel of i!. The actual colors, the light… I mean that’s kind of what the movie was based around; this finding joy at a time in your life when society tells you that it’s over. It was just really nice.

A: Why is it that the characters even go to India in the first place?

S: Well none of the characters are connected at the beginning of the movie, but have all suffered a bump in the road in some way. Judi Dench’s husband had just passed away, Bill Nighy and his wife are experiencing financial difficulties, and they all come to a point in their lives where things just aren’t going their way. So they decide to take a leap of faith and try this Exotic Marigold hotel in India for elderly people to find new life, and to realize that it’s NOT over yet. And it’s a great, great cast portraying these journeys.

A: Speaking of which, how did the cast do, and of the actors, did any stand out above the others?

S: Well Dench’s character would be considered the main character. She kind of narrates the whole things, as she’s taking this trip she’s blogging so there are times where it kind of narrates how life is going. It was a powerhouse performance by all these actors who are probably at this stage in life where they’re not getting all the phone calls anymore, you know? And so I can imagine this is the type of movie they saw as an opportunity to kind of get their names back out there.

Judi Dench plays Evelyn, a newly widowed woman who moves to India in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Think about Maggie Smith (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), Judi Dench, Bill Nighy and Tom Wilkinson (Batman Begins). They are from an era where British actors were really something!. And so they work really well together.

A: Are there any particular parts of the film that rubbed you the wrong way, or were just general negatives?

S: I will say the movie was a little slow at times. It’s very much a geriatric grade movie, it was slow and kind of meander a little bit, but it had a lot of heart. The whole movie had heart, so it was a fun movie.

A: What was Dev Patel’s (Slumdog Millionaire) role in the film?

S: He’s the manager and co-owner of the hotel. It was his father’s and now it’s his and his brothers’, but Patel had the same dream as his father to turn this into a thriving hotel. But he just didn’t have the business savvy. So his story is part of it as well, sort of his self-discovery through these people who are staying at his hotel, they all gain insight through each other whether it’s through their own personal story or experiences that they have on this trip. He kinda has a goofball persona, so it’s not like his character was very serious, sort of the quirky Indian guy, but he did well!

A: Any other negative points besides it meandering a bit at times?

S: I would say the slowness was a pretty big point for me. It was NOT an action film. It’s not a rom-com.

A: Oh, so you said earlier none of the characters were related to one another before going to India, so there’s no romantic sparks or anything?

S: Oh there are, there definitely are sparks. But it all happens in India. None of them are connected beforehand. They all learn something from each other, and it’s just interesting to see the evolution of their characters, especially Maggie Smith. I would say Smith’s character is the most evolved over the course of the movie.

A: Are you glad your saw it?

S: I am. It had a lot of heart. It was well made, they did a great job, the cinematography was beautiful. I’m not sure that I would ever need to see it in theatres. It was definitely an older crowd. But I would say this is a movie you could Netlifx one day, a rainy afternoon, kinda curl up with a hot cup of tea.

(Out of Five Clapboards)

Photo Courtesies: Movie Fanatic, The Guardian

It's "Die Hard" but in a SPACE PRISON: Our Review of "Lockout" (2012)

Directed By: James Mather & Stephen St. Leger


Starring: Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Peter Stormare


Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and language including some sexual references


Synopsis: Ex-CIA agent Snow (Pearce) is falsely accused of murder and sentenced to 30 years in MS One - a maximum penitentiary facility in space. It just so happens that the President's daughter, Emilie (Grace), is on a humanitarian mission to the prison around the same time when a prison break occurs and she's held hostage. As a compromise, Snow is sent to MS One to save the President's daughter while also holding his own reasons for wanting to go.


REVIEW


Andrew: Mark this day down, readers, because today is a first. Today is the day Sarah and I completely disagree on a movie and we get the opportunity to play "point-counterpoint" and I'm REALLY looking forward to this.

Last night we saw the new sci-fi action flick Lockout starring Guy Pearce (Memento) and Maggie Grace (Taken). From the first time I saw the trailer for this film and it made me laugh I have been looking forward to seeing this one, and I have to say: I THOROUGHLY enjoyed it.

Sarah, on the other hand...

Sarah: Was not impressed AT ALL. Everything from the storyline to the action screamed cheesy and ridiculous. From the very first action sequence I was like, "What the..." I was just not impressed. There is a chase scene in the first sequence that really was like something straight out of a video game with Pearce poorly overlaid on the computer animation.

Pearce plays ex-CIA agent Snow and is sent to MS One to save the President's daughter played by Grace

A: Of all the things I could possibly concede to you in this review, the special effects in that opening sequence are the one thing I will give you. They're terrible, look like they were made with a video game, and they shouldn't have been allowed in a film that isn't direct-to-DVD.

That said, the rest of the special effects in the movie are actually pretty damn good. It's pretty obvious that almost all the CGI budget went towards the outer-space scenes and not that first sequence, because the space scenes were on par with Star Wars or Star Trek most of the time.

S: And I will give you that - the rest were pretty sweet even if the action left some to be desired. The storyline also left a lot to be desired. There seemed to be three different storylines going at one time and they all seemed to compete. There is Snow (Pearce) and this secret mission that is somehow connected to the CIA and Secret Service. The there is Emilie (Grace) who is going to this space prison to check out and see if tests are being performed on the inmates for deep-space travel research, THEN there is the whole all the bad guys wake up and the ship falls out of the sky thing. And NONE of these lines seem to come together in any sort of discernible logic.

A: To that I'll say I felt the three storylines actually did thread well together when all was said and done. To say why would risk spoiling the end game of the movie, which I was impressed with because my expectations FOR the plot weren't very high.

It's pretty obvious this is a "guy movie" and unapolegetically so. It has explosions, it has gunfire, it has the damsel in distress, it's about a PRISON IN OUTER-SPACE, and it has Guy Pearce playing a guy who could be a future descendent of Bruce Willis' John McClane. It's pretty clear that's what they're going for - right down to both characters having a particular fear (McClane = flying/Snow = heights), smoking (they even make a point of it to say nobody smokes in the future except Snow), and the pithy one-liners (which cracked me up).

Snow lighting one up during the chaos reminded Andrew of John McClane in Die Hard

Andrew’s Note: Guy Pearce probably saved this movie with his comedic timing and delivery. He was perfectly cast for it and I’m glad to see him in something like this. The back-and-forth between him and Grace was maybe my favorite thing about the movie.

S: NO, see HERE'S where I draw the line. A "guy" movie? I think that is crap. You and I have seen many *quote, unquote* guy movie that I have actually really enjoyed. 21 JUMP STREET could have been considered a "guy" movie but no, I really liked it and so did many other women who I know that saw it. So to give the chauvinistic line "oh it's just a guy movie" to summarize why this movie is crap is just an excuse.

The one-liners and weak story were annoying. The THREE different times when the heroes are hiding and the bad guys walk right past them, then turn around and NO ONE is there was ridiculous. The fact that when the President sends in the air strike and NONE of the pilots are like "hey maybe we should take out the guns on the station instead of just trying to weave around them" is a joke. 

This movie could have been good, really good in fact if they had just stuck with ONE storyline. They leave a little at the end, I believe in the hopes that this first one would make enough to entice a sequel, and it just leaves you kinda going, "That's it?" 

A: I'm not saying that this is a great movie, by any stretch of the imagination. Is it possible that I'm letting those things you just pointed out slide a bit because it's a Luc Besson produced movie about a prison in space? Sure. But what I'm trying to say is that if some of our readers like a cheesy action flick that can essentially be boiled down to "it's Die Hard in space," then they'll like this movie like I did. If they don't, then this isn't the movie for them.

Joseph Gilgun plays Hydell, the crazed convict who starts the prisoner takeover of MS One

S: Correction, a SUPER cheesy movie in space. And while I know you didn't think this is a great movie, the fact that you enjoyed it is enough to make me gag a little. 

So, readers, I think that it's safe to say that this isn't a movie that you should drop what you're doing and head to the theatres to see. It's probably not one that you ever really need to see, but we have finally given you a review where we really did not see eye-to-eye on this one, and probably never will. So happy movie viewing because there are some fun ones coming out over the next couple of weeks that we are excited to see!

A: I WILL be seeing The Cabin in the Woods tomorrow while the wife works, so look out for that review soon!

(Out of Five)