Blu-ray Review: Taken (2009) -- Extended Cut 2 Discs Includes Digital Copy

Now Available on DVD & Blu-ray

An Introduction

While it's quite rare to find an action movie with such emotional depth-- it only takes a few moments of witnessing Liam Neeson's pitch-perfect, understated performance to realize that it's his take on the Taken character that has made director Pierre Morel's film one of the most surprising and strongest works so far in 2009.

Admittedly, seeing Neeson's extraordinary turn as a man desperately trying to reconnect with his daughter and then find her when she's taken-- since he'd sacrifice anything for a loved one-- makes the film all the more emotionally heartrending on DVD and Blu-ray. For when the movie debuted, Neeson became an overnight thinking man's action hero to theatre goers around the globe but now, his pain throughout the movie is quite searing as it's augmented in the minds of viewers who are still shaken by Neeson's real-life, devastating tragedy in the recent loss of his beautiful, talented wife and mother to his children-- Ms. Natasha Richardson.

Of course, it's an important critical aspect to separate the work from an actor's personal life but I admit it's quite hard given the subject matter of Taken yet above all Neeson's humanity and integrity shines through. And in the film, he hits us on a level we didn't quite expect in a work in which I was shocked to discover the actor did a majority of his own stunts but before I analyze the Blu-ray's extras and features, I'll start it off by posting my original theatrical review below for your convenience (so you don't have to jump from screen to screen).

Original Theatrical Review

In 2004 when David Mamet tackled female human trafficking with the underrated Val Kilmer thriller Spartan (which benefited zero from the forgettable title as for years I've had to remind others, "yes, you really did see that movie"), he did so with his trademark "all talk" and very little action.
However, when you give the same premise to the gang responsible for turning Jason Statham into a critic proof walking video game character in The Transporter, anyone-- even soft-spoken Liam Neeson from Nell and Kinsey-- can go all Schwarzenegger on everybody's ass quicker than you can say "action."

The film's premise is as straightforward as its effective Death Wish era Charles Bronson-esque poster and chilling trailer. Or, for the uninitiated-- here's the Cliff's Notes-- retired CIA operative Brian Mills (Liam Neeson) who had quit his gig to make up for lost time in his daughter's life finds himself blending the two in unimaginable ways after the seventeen year old girl and her best friend disappear from Paris, shortly after their arrival when abducted by a group of Albanian sex-traffickers.
In a horrifying scene played with intense calm, Brian morphs from concerned and overprotective father to black-ops agent right before our eyes when-- while chatting on the cell phone with Kim (Maggie Grace)-- intruders invade the apartment and he instructs her to hide, asking detailed questions until he must give her the news that ultimately she will be taken.

When a different voice breathes into the phone, Mills delivers a cool warning that he will hunt him down to exact murderous revenge unless his daughter is released, to which the then unseen captor chides, "Good luck."

Realizing he has ninety-six hours to get to Paris and find her before she falls through the cracks of the international human smuggling black market, Neeson's Mills goes into stealth mode, willing to hot-wire vehicles, torture, shoot civilians to get information, until he gains enough tips for an ultimate showdown.

Perpetually missing Kim by moments in an underworld maze filled with inhumane horrors, we're led into the seedy underbelly of the City of Lights in this action-packed and fast paced thriller that doesn't bother with subplot or added complexity, just succeeding in the same Transporter-like "man on a mission" formula by strapping us in and not letting go.
Sharply edited by Frederic Thoraval who had chopped together the film's producer and co-writer Luc Besson's Angel-A and lensed by cinematographer Michel Abramowicz--Professional and La Femme Nikita writer/director Luc Besson collaborated once again with his Professional, The Fifth Element, Transporter, Kiss of the Dragon Hollywood scripter Robert Mark Kamen (who also penned A Walk in the Clouds, Lethal Weapon 3, and The Devil's Own). And in bringing everyone together once again, they graduated the cinematographer of Besson's previous Jet Li film Unleashed-- Pierre Morel-- to direct.
While it excels as an air-tight if predictable thriller thanks to a transformative turn by Neeson who will never be mistaken for a foreign art-house actor again (and definitely makes up for his involvement in the horrific new Star Wars films), Taken is also ratcheted up countless notches by its first-rate behind-the-scenes talent-- most notably the score composed by Nathaniel Mechaly which has you tapping your feet and nodding your head, elevating your blood pressure along with Neeson's as he storms through the Parisian streets to track down his daughter. Just don't attempt to get in his way... unless your name is Jason Statham.

The Blu-ray

True to form for Fox Blu-ray-- the quality of Taken's transfer is superlative. Much like Disney, Fox has managed to perfect the art of Blu-ray in a way that not only presents the absolute best reproduction of the film in the 1080 high definition digital pixels but also somehow manages to ensure that viewers will receive the most satisfying display and sound, regardless of their screen size or speaker set-up.

In a refreshing change in a world of some hurried Blu-rays where my volume lunges near 65 to make out the dialogue before explosions and music nearly blast me out of the chair-- the mixes from Fox have been consistently first rate. In fact, when I first made the switch to Blu-ray and was testing out the player simply on my computer, I was less than impressed by the muddied colors and artifacting I witnessed in a competitive studio's new release (which shall go nameless) and-- wanting to make sure the upgrade was worth it-- I went out and rented a plethora of discs and as soon as I checked out Fox's Transporter 2, I knew I'd become a Blu-ray convert.

Taken's Blu-ray offers two versions of the film-- the theatrical release and the unrated extended version but being that the extended version only extends the story for roughly three minutes, there's nothing overly significant about the newer cut.

Taking a cue from video games and perhaps understandably realizing a good majority of its target audience would be teenage boys playing the Blu-ray on their equipped Playstations-- the Blu-ray offers one of the coolest video game/internet style pop-ups around throughout the disc as you're able to select watching the film in Black Ops Field Manual mode.

Complete with a clock that begins running down the 96 hours Neeson has to find his daughter as well as a distance traveled meter and the number of individuals killed or injured-- it also manages to work in GPS Google Maps like images to show us exactly where a scene is taking place-- making the viewer feel as though they're on the Commando style mission with Neeson.

Stunt junkies can get their fix on the Inside Action side-by-side segments (or actually a top and bottom screen) that shows the difference between what ends up cut together and polished in the movie and how it was all shot in reality, noting the changes in light and darkness as perhaps a filter was used to make the film appear grayer.

Also included on the disc are the typically format-friendly features including premiere footage and two separate commentary tracks in two different languages as the filmmakers all speak French and the co-writer Robert Mark Kamen speaks English. However, while most making-of-the-film featurettes are largely ho-hum, Taken's was an exception as I was fascinated by the rapid pacing and decision making of Morel (who speaks in French throughout) as those involved discuss the challenges and style of the movie.

It also offers some interesting pieces of information about the actors' process for example by informing viewers how Neeson manged to nail that initial phone call wherein his daughter (played by Lost's Maggie Grace) is taken as it's revealed that the actress flew out to film her side of the conversation unseen in a room next door, screaming for real so that his reaction was far more intense.

Additionally, as a fan of cinematography, I also discovered some cool aspects about the film I'd missed the first time around. With former Luc Besson camera man Morel doing both his own photography as well as directing, he knew exactly what he wanted at all times. Speaking of his take on the look of the movie, he says that the camera translates the action from the start as it's illustrated in the scenes that occur in America the camera doesn't move since things are in balance in Neeson's life. However, once he arrives in Paris, our hero has declared war on the kidnappers and the camera's quick speed and movement helps heighten the tension considerably.

Laughing that since Bourne Supremacy's excellent car chase, they knew they had their work cut out for them in trying to top it, Morel decided that in Taken, he would make the car chase scene even faster, double the danger by setting it at night, and ensure there were no crashes (well, onscreen at least).

Also boasting a digital copy of the unrated extended version of the film you can quickly download onto your compatible portable decices (that works on both Apple and PC)-- while it's hard to imagine wanting to view the film in anything less than high definition, it's a wonderful bonus for fans who find themselves taken with Taken and want to bring it along with them.

Visually dynamic throughout with extreme clarity running from left to right in each frame-- which is saying something since a majority of the picture takes place at night-- Fox's 2-Disc edition of Taken is further proof that they have this format down solid and are now beginning to expand on it even more by offering those cool bonus features like Black Ops (which also includes pop up facts about the situations and technical issues involved in the pursuit logistics-wise).

A must-add to your Blu-ray library and a refreshingly smart, emotionally arresting action movie (and one of the standouts of '09)-- this Blu-ray is proof that every once in awhile it's okay to let yourself get Taken... by the film that is.

Taken (2009)

View the Trailer



Read the In-Depth Blu-ray Review

Bookmark this on Delicious

Print Page

From Star Wars' Qui-Gon Jinn to The Transporter?

In 2004 when David Mamet tackled female human trafficking with the underrated Val Kilmer thriller Spartan (which benefited zero from the forgettable title as for years I've had to remind others, "yes, you really did see that movie"), he did so with his trademark "all talk" and very little action.

However, when you give the same premise to the gang responsible for turning Jason Statham into a critic proof walking video game character in The Transporter, anyone-- even soft-spoken Liam Neeson from Nell and Kinsey-- can go all Schwarzenegger on everybody's ass quicker than you can say "action."

The film's premise is as straightforward as its effective Death Wish era Charles Bronson-esque poster and chilling trailer. Or, for the uninitiated-- here's the Cliff's Notes-- retired CIA operative Brian Mills (Liam Neeson) who had quit his gig to make up for lost time in his daughter's life finds himself blending the two in unimaginable ways after the seventeen year old girl and her best friend disappear from Paris, shortly after their arrival when abducted by a group of Albanian sex-traffickers.

In a horrifying scene played with intense calm, Brian morphs from concerned and overprotective father to black-ops agent right before our eyes when-- while chatting on the cell phone with Kim (Maggie Grace)-- intruders invade the apartment and he instructs her to hide, asking detailed questions until he must give her the news that ultimately she will be taken.

When a different voice breathes into the phone, Mills delivers a cool warning that he will hunt him down to exact murderous revenge unless his daughter is released, to which the then unseen captor chides, "Good luck."

Realizing he has ninety-six hours to get to Paris and find her before she falls through the cracks of the international human smuggling black market, Neeson's Mills goes into stealth mode, willing to hot-wire vehicles, torture, shoot civilians to get information, until he gains enough tips for an ultimate showdown.

Perpetually missing Kim by moments in an underworld maze filled with inhumane horrors, we're led into the seedy underbelly of the City of Lights in this action-packed and fast paced thriller that doesn't bother with subplot or added complexity, just succeeding in the same Transporter-like "man on a mission" formula by strapping us in and not letting go.

Sharply edited by Frederic Thoraval who had chopped together the film's producer and co-writer Luc Besson's Angel-A and lensed by cinematographer Michel Abramowicz--Professional and La Femme Nikita writer/director Luc Besson collaborated once again with his Professional, The Fifth Element, Transporter, Kiss of the Dragon Hollywood scripter Robert Mark Kamen (who also penned A Walk in the Clouds, Lethal Weapon 3, and The Devil's Own). And in bringing everyone together once again, they graduated the cinematographer of Besson's previous Jet Li film Unleashed-- Pierre Morel-- to direct.

While it excels as an air-tight if predictable thriller thanks to a transformative turn by Neeson who will never be mistaken for a foreign art-house actor again (and definitely makes up for his involvement in the horrific new Star Wars films), Taken is also ratcheted up countless notches by its first-rate behind-the-scenes talent-- most notably the score composed by Nathaniel Mechaly which has you tapping your feet and nodding your head, elevating your blood pressure along with Neeson's as he storms through the Parisian streets to track down his daughter. Just don't attempt to get in his way... unless your name is Jason Statham.

Turn the River

This Hustler's After The Color of Motherhood.

Originally published at Blogcritics in my Under the Radar feature.

Even though we should know better, sometimes it’s fairly easy to mistake the characters an actor plays with what he or she must be like in real life. For example, if you tried an experiment and asked a group of strangers about A-list stars, a majority would probably tell you that Tom Hanks seems like the nicest guy on the planet given his work in Forrest Gump and Big (which is why they avoided his brilliant turn as a hit-man in Sam Mendes’ Road to Perdition). And in the same turn, that probably Wall Street, Fatal Attraction, and Basic Instinct star Michael Douglas seems like he’d be a tad intimidating. Sure enough, it’s this kind of thinking that spans the entire realm of all celebrities whether they’re actors, athletes or musicians whose lives are thrust in front of us in a multitude of ways, all inviting us to label them by their creative output.

Case in point: the highly verbal independent film star, Chris Eigeman a.k.a. an actor upon whom I developed quite an irrationally intellectual crush in the early '90s. Ever since I saw Chris Eigeman in Whit Stillman’s Barcelona -- dissecting the process of physical therapy and analyzing what’s really going on at the end of The Graduate — I became a fan of the actor’s uniquely neurotic delivery of dialogue. Simply put, Eigeman can make the most complicated paragraphs of scripted words sound naturally effortless.

Thus, over the years, since his scene stealing performance in Stillman’s Metropolitan, it’s no wonder that Eigeman has attracted some truly innovative writers such as Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming) and television scribes including Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls) and Peter Mehlman (It’s Like You Know). Indeed if there were ever a verbal Olympics, I’m going on record as stating that the American team should consist of Eigeman as its captain, quickly followed by Lauren Graham, Campbell Scott, Parker Posey, Matthew Perry, and Topher Grace.

And it’s precisely this type of thinking, based on the characters Eigeman has portrayed again and again, that made his much darker, far less verbal, noir-tinged feature filmmaking debut, Turn the River, remind me once again that — similar to the way you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover (as then no one would read Catcher in the Rye) — you shouldn’t judge a man by how many WASPs he’s played. In a truly memorable and impressively subtle character-driven work — Eigeman’s first as a writer/director — he cast his vastly underrated Treatment co-star Famke Janssen (Goldeneye, X-Men, Made) as Kailey, a desperate New York pool hustler, eager to get together enough money to take her child away from her ex and head across the border to start a new life.

Winner of three awards at the Hamptons International Film Festival and lauded with praise by some of the nation’s top critics equally taken by both Eigeman’s debut and Dutch born actress Janssen’s mesmerizing portrayal that was even better than Maggie Gyllenhaal’s similarly themed work in last year’s Sherrybaby, this independent stunner has recently landed on DVD shelves. After having penned a couple of scenes here and there, once Eigeman wrapped The Treatment, he turned once again to his unfinished screenplay and once he began writing Kailey’s dialogue, he told IFC’s Stephen Saito that “it was incredibly evident that I was writing for Famke — there’s something very defining about her,” which he attributes to her “fearlessness” and “great cowboy spirit… both in her life and in her work.”

Although he notes that “it was truly f***ing terrifying,” to shoot the film’s “20 or 30 pool shots,” which they photographed and named and Eigeman laments the fact that he didn’t have the same “support structure to try and pull something like [Martin Scorsese’s Color of Money] off,” he admits that his cast including Janssen got “good enough that we could just let them play. We’d shoot 360 degrees and let them go.” However, while pool plays a primary role as it is Kailey’s immediate source of income aside from a few poker games here and there, Turn the River is at its heart a humanistic portrait of a woman who will do anything to be with her child.

As the film begins, we find ourselves moved by Kailey, who, despite having no visitation rights with her 11-year-old son Gulley (Jaymie Dornan), mails letters to the pool hall run by her trusted friend and fatherly mentor Quinette (a terrific Rip Torn), only able to arrange meetings with her son in secret. While admittedly we’re torn when we become acquainted with Kailey’s plan to kidnap her willing son, once we meet Gulley’s overly religious and domineering birth father David (Matt Ross) and his new submissive wife Ellen (Marin Hinkle), we realize that neither situation is ideal for Gulley and in the end, while a sense of foreboding pervades, we want to believe that Kailey will be able to quit hustling and settle down. Yet, Eigeman refuses to let us off the hook easily — as a veteran of independent cinema, he respects the intelligence of his audience enough not to offer any shortcuts and makes each and every plot turn seem entirely real and inevitable.

View the Trailer:

Also featuring a wonderful music score by Clogs, comprised of “four musicians from the U.S. and Australia who compose and improvise using sounds, textures and influences from across the musical spectrum,” Turn the River plays first and foremost as a tremendous film about motherhood and secondly as an above-average poolroom drama wherein, Eigeman notes that just like sex scenes, pool shots are “infinitely less interesting than [the expressions on] people’s faces.” And with this in mind, the entire film serves as a wonderful showcase to the tour de force performance by Janssen.

Likewise, hopefully if it catches on, Turn the River will earn this truly talented performer many, many more roles… that is, as long as we don’t typecast her as a pool-shark anytime soon. Although, much like the verbal Eigeman — if the game of pool ever becomes an Olympic event, we’ll know whom to send for that category as well.

The Ten

Director:
David Wain

Although it’s comprised of ten vignettes that use the biblical Ten Commandments as a jumping-off point, those who are overly devout or easily offended may want to skip director David Wain’s irreverent, unbalanced, yet undeniably hilarious The Ten. Hosted by Paul Rudd whose character finds himself breaking one of the commandments himself by being torn between his beautiful, loyal wife Famke Janssen or the young, sexy film buff Jessica Alba, the offbeat comedy The Ten which begins with a cautionary tale of a young man (Adam Brody) who jumps out of a plane without a parachute, only to find himself stuck in the ground where he’s worshipped as a false God but still finds time to party and star in his own television show, gets progressively more outrageous with each successive story.

Featuring a relative who’s who of comedians and actors, we soon encounter Gretchen Mol as a buttoned up thirty-something virgin librarian who has a summer fling while vacationing in Mexico with a carpenter named Jesus, a surgeon who leaves a pair or scissors inside a patient as “a goof,” Oliver Platt as an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator who becomes a surrogate father to teen black twins, Liev Schreiber as a jealous father who tries to out buy his neighbor in the cat scan machine market, a man who covets a prison wife and of course, Winona Ryder who steals a ventriloquist’s dummy with whom she falls in love while on her honeymoon. Also featuring Justin Theroux, Bobby Cannavale, and others, despite its uneven nature as some of the more ridiculous plots and characters do detract from the overall success, The Ten is compulsively watchable and sure to interest devotees of sketch comedy.