TAK3N: Should you take it or leave it?

Movie:  Taken 3  or as it's advertised, TAK3N

PG-13, 1 hour 33 minutes

Grade:  C

In a Nutshell:

·         Liam Neeson is forever tough and gruff with lines like “Try anything funny and they’ll kill you.  And if they don’t, I will.”

      I love Liam Neeson, but I have to admit that he is getting a little too old for this kind of stuff.  There are so many edited cuts in every scene, as if the director (Olivier Megaton) could only use the footage where Liam doesn't look like he's getting tired.  Don't get me wrong; I still love watching him kick butt, but this franchise is becoming its own farce.

      If you love Liam Neeson, this is a watchable bad movie.  Prepare to laugh out loud at some of the many ridiculous moments.

Uplifting Theme:

* Family first.  As Bryan Mills says "My first priority is the safety of my daughter."

Things I liked:
* Watching Liam's character Bryan Mills is like watching MacGyver's Yoda.
*  Forest Whitaker does a fine job with the cliched character he is given.

Things I didn’t like:

·        My son described it well when he said "Taken 3 makes Taken 2 look like Taken 1.  ha ha
      This time, the movie takes place in the United States, but it’s still loaded with Russian thugs who smoke cigars, sit in hot tubs with scantily clad women, and say things like “Okay. Let’s go get drunk.”
   ·         You’d think by now that Bryan’s daughter Kim (played by Maggie Grace) would have learned some self-defense moves just in case.  She spends most of the movie puddled on the floor with her mother’s scarf.

·         Don’t you love how everyone has top notch firearms, but can never hit their mark except Liam Neeson?

·         A pockmarked Russian bad guy fighting in a white Speedo.  Ick.

·         The movie poster says “It ends here", but there is clearly a set up for Taken 4.
       There are so many unbelievable moments, that the result isn't that you have to suspend your disbelief, but that you are numbed into submission.
*   While there are a couple of twists (I LOVE twists), the bad guys are predictable and cliched.
*    There are so many points in the movie that just aren't explained.

·          

Funny lines:

·         “Interesting family.” – Franck Dotzler
*    "Bagels." - Bryan

Observations:

·         Malankov has stairs in his penthouse without banisters.  I’d totally fall off.
      SPOILER ALERT: In the shot where Bryan is water boarding Stewart, the amount of Stewart's shirt that is wet changes in between shots.

·         It's absurd that Liam tosses machine guns and AR-15's on the floor and instead, prefers his handgun.  I would have kept both.
      I gotta get me some Special Opps friends in case I ever get in trouble.

Tips for Parents:  The body count is high (of course), along with profanity and violence...all expected for this kind of film.

If you want to watch a better film that has the same plot of an innocent man being framed for his wife's death, one of my all-time favorites is The Fugitive

If you missed the first two Taken installments (which were better than this 3rd one), you can check them out here for super cheap:
 

Red 2 movie review

 
The last time we saw John Malkovich in Red, he was wearing blonde braids and being pushed in a wooden cart through a field in Maldova with bombs going off all around him, while being chased by dozens of armed soldiers. 

Red 2 reunites John Malkovich’s paranoid and retired CIA-Agent (Marvin) with his old partner, Frank Moses, played by Bruce Willis.  You have to love a Hollywood movie where all of the stars are over 50.  I watched the first installment of the 2010 sleeper hit Red this week to refresh my memory of the fun story and quirky characters in preparation for the sequel, and enjoyed it as much as I did the first time, but you don’t have to see it to still get a kick out of Red 2.  You’ll miss a few inside jokes and some relationship background, but you’ll catch on quickly enough to enjoy the goofy action.

Although the original poster to advertise Red was actually red, it’s actually an acronym which stands for “Retired Extremely Dangerous”, a label some “thumb sucker” used on a file when Frank and Marvin retired from the CIA.  The color red is actually highlighted more in this second film, as well as a more comic-book feel.  The campy 70’s music from the original is replaced with a more current twist, often using popular musical snippets to underscore comedic moments.

Red 2 opens in Costco, where Marvin and his girlfriend (Mary-Louise Parker) are shopping for giant bags of shrimp to take home to their quiet, boring life in the ‘burbs.  It doesn’t take long for bullets to start flying and a mysterious crime to call them into action. 

The film is rated PG-13 for lots and lots of violence (mostly bloodless).  It has it all: awesome explosions, car crashes in impressive chase scenes in Paris, tons of shooting with various weapons, hand-to-hand combat, and even a guy getting killed with a lethal origami bird.  You’ll hear some profanity in the heat of the moment, but no F-bombs.  Oh, and lots and lots of kissing.  Frank’s girlfriend often resorts to kissing the bad guys when she can’t think of anything else to do.  She’s an enthusiastic accomplice, successfully donning short skirts during most of the movie, eagerly taking tactical tips from Marvin when Frank isn’t looking.  It’s important to have fun activities to do together as a couple.

Speaking of Frank’s girlfriend (Sarah Ross) played by Mary-Louise Parker, I wish Hollywood actresses would stop messing with their faces and just age gracefully.  I always admired Mary-Louise Parker for her feminine beauty before she had “work” done, including Botox which leaves her acting more reliant upon voice inflection than facial expression.  She’s a terrific actress, also starring in this weekend’s arrival of R.I.P.D. directed by Robert Schwentke, who directed the first Red, but not the sequel.  Marvin comments that she has something that neither he nor Frank have: people like her.  And they do…in both Red 2 and R.I.P.D.

Frank’s romantic kryptonite is revealed in the “dusky femme fatale”, Russian Katja (Catherine Zeta-Jones).   What happens in the Kremlin, stays in the Kremlin.  I’ll bet you didn’t know there was a Papa John’s right next door to Soviet headquarters, did you?  The beloved Anthony Hopkins graces the screen as a brilliant scientist who can unlock the secrets to the “Project Nightshade” dilemma, but alas, he has been put under I.C.E. (Incarcerated Can’t Execute). 

Helen Mirren’s character, MI6 agent Victor, offers relationship advice to Sarah and skillfully takes out enemies while looking fabulous the entire time.  Marvin encourages Frank to run to emotional safety, explaining “I know one thing: women and covert ops.”  Frank protests “But that’s two things.”  Marvin, in his great wisdom, opines “No Grasshopper.  It is not.”

As our favorite cool, yet deadly, retired agents all come together again, Han (Byung-hun Lee) appears in the least convenient times to put a hit on Frank.  Their fights are pretty impressive, especially considering the age difference between the two.

My husband has a hard time enjoying movies that are completely implausible, and there are quite a few critics out there who are also annoyed by the film’s holes, but imagine the actors and director with their tongue firmly planted in their cheeks and you’ll be entertained.  By the way, Maldova gets a shout-out in the movie, and John Malkovich ends the movie wearing fruit on his head, dressed as a dancer in their next adventure in Caracas.  Red 3?

Grade = A-

Double movie review with Richard Gere

 
Which way now? That’s the question you’ll ask at the end of the movie Double, starring the aging-well Richard Gere. This fun spy thriller has some clever twists and turns, which I love. Even though I love a solid ending, I also love the conversation-starting rush that leaves you wondering what happens next. You think you know, but you might be wrong. Sure, it opens the movie up for a possible sequel or it could just be a fun way to leave you hanging.

My husband and I just discovered Double on Netflix last night. Directed by Michael Brandt and released late in 2011, the movie received mixed reviews. Richard Gere fans will be impressed that he runs and keeps up with the young FBI agent played by Topher Grace. Martin Sheen fans will get a kick out of his authoritative performance as the head of the CIA. (I miss The West Wing.)

Gere plays a retired CIA agent who is called back to help find a Soviet assassin claimed to have killed a U.S. senator. The Cold War is alive and well. One of my sons decided to start learning Russian lately, so it was fun to recognize some of the words he taught me. Thankfully, there are subtitles during the few moments the Slavic language is spoken in the movie. The plot solves a mystery early in the movie, to some movie-goers’ chagrin, but there are more crimes to solve as the movie rolls along the streets of Washington D.C. The director likes to zoom in on waving American flags, but the plot will make you wonder if our country’s intelligence has Sputnik-sized holes in it.

You’ll watch a bad guy swallow two batteries and see lots of bullets fly, but otherwise, there are no F-bombs, sex, or nudity, earning a solid PG-13 rating. No, it didn’t win any awards, but it passes for 1 ½ hours of interesting entertainment.



Grade = B+