Taken 2 Review
The Plot:
Retired CIA super-agent Bryan Mills finds himself, his ex-wife and daughter once again caught up in gun battles and mayhem, this time in Istanbul, as the families of the kidnappers he ruthless dispatched rescuing his daughter in the first film set out to take their revenge.
The Good:
The success of the first Taken film was almost exclusively due to Liam Neeson’s explosive performance. So effective was the towering middle aged Irishman in the role of a heroic unstoppable killing machine, it reinvented his career overnight, instantly transforming him into an unlikely new action superstar.
The second time around, Liam Neeson effortlessly replicates the blistering paced physical action of the original, as he efficiently works his way through annihilating a fresh batch of faceless Eurotrash bad guys. As soon as Neeson slips on a leather jacket and flips his switch to ‘badass’ mode, the film immediately becomes far vastly more watchable. It’s an immensely satisfying guilty pleaser to watch him pummel vile kidnappers to death with a flurry of massive fists or blowing them away with a very well placed bullet.
Director Olivier Megaton at least replicates the frantic visual flair of Luc Besson’s 2008 effort. The fight scenes are convincingly bruising and brutal. The dark streets of Istanbul also do a good job of replacing the Paris slums which defined the character of the first film.
Taken 2 has its flaws, but thankfully Liam Neeson’s constant and undeniable magnificence brings a credibility to the entire film that it may not always deserve. It’s rare for a central performance to be so commanding that it simply makes you forgive and forget any other failings.
The Bad:
You have to be pretty wary saying anything negative about Taken 2 because you really don’t want to get into an argument with Liam Neeson. You WILL lose.
Taken 2 closely follows the template of its successful predecessor, but only manages to capture some of the lighting that made the first film an unexpected box office smash, raking in over $225million worldwide. Whilst vengeful bad guys might add a little superficial emotion to proceedings, it’s really all just an obvious excuse for more family members to be predictably Taken. Evidently they really didn’t pay attention to the moral of the first story, never ever take Liam Neeson’s stuff… he does Not like that one bit.
As a sequel Taken 2 is mostly a straightforward repetition of the first film. Unfortunately in an effort to distinguish itself, the film attempts to exploit easy laughs and tries to give expanded roles to our heroes ex-wife and daughter. The new comedic tone and shifting even the slightest bit of focus away from Liam Neeson’s character is clearly a mistake.
Maggie Grace who plays Neeson’s kidnap prone daughter Kim is easily the film’s weakest link. It’s not simply a lack of acting talent; her character is just intrinsically implausible and unavoidably irritating. Trying to suddenly introduce her as an ill-advised action sidekick pushes the film toward becoming an embarrassing cliché. While she was just about tolerable as hysterical kidnap victim, watching her casually lobbing grenades around Istanbul before stunt driving her way through the city, strains believability far too far.
Famke Janssen as Neeson’s estranged wife and love interest seems to spend most of her increased screen time unconscious, giving her little chance to display any hint of emotional range or contribute to the film beyond a necessary plot point.
The Ugly Truth:
Fans of the original Taken and Liam Neeson’s new action superhero persona will take great delight in finding another opportunity to hear him growl one liners and see him demolish roomfuls of evil doers.
Taken 2 really doesn’t take itself as seriously as the first film, deliberately and perhaps at times unintentionally, provoking big audience laughs. Those already enjoying the film as a guilty treat will welcome the self-referential comedic undertones; but some action fans may prefer the relentless brutality of the first film.
Taken 2 arrives in UK Cinemas on 4th October, if you don’t go see it Liam Neeson may just have to use his special set of skills to find you and ask why? Taken 2 International Trailer below:
Untouchable Review
The Plot:
A rich quadriplegic, living in a mansion in Paris, requires a live-in carer. A young offender turns up for an interview, but he is not really looking to get the job. However, to his surprise, he is hired. The two men then develop a close friendship
The Good:
Untouchable probably isn’t going to be the film that is marketed across the UK as the next big “blockbuster” movie, more the dark horse in the running. But if you do catch it, and we thoroughly recommend that you do, you will hopefully remember it as one of those cinema gems that you’ll want to return to time and time again.
The true story of an unlikely friendship provides the platform for fantastic performances from Francois Cluzet (Little White Lies) as Phillippe and Omar Sy as Driss and a small but important supporting cast. The two leads are thrown together in an unlikely pairing which is not only heartwarming but endearing too. The film is a simple story and simple setting but through the actors charisma and chemistry with each other, audiences will find themselves laughing, crying and dare we say it, feeling that “warm fuzzy feeling inside.”
Untouchable was not the film we were expecting to watch, prepped with a box of tissues we thought we’d be weeping from start to finish, but instead were engaged in a story about a man, who with the help of a pitiless, bolshy and honest care assistant was learning to live again, learning to look beyond his disability and still managing to get the best out of life. Its hard not to be almost sycophantic about this film, it shows the best side in people, and probably is the reason why its been catapulted to the top of some box office charts and has sat comfortably as the second highest rated French film in history.
What this film reminds us is that you don’t need all these amazing effects, A-List stars or big budget studios, the essence of great film making is a brilliant story, and that is exactly what Untouchable is, a true and wonderful story.
The Bad:
As you can probably tell, its hard to find faults with this film, however as is often the case, the fact that it is in French may initially put off some audiences. However if you are the kind of audience goer who would normally walk on by when faced with a foreign language film, we would urge you to stop and take a punt on this one.
The Ugly Truth:
This is the type of film we would love to see getting some awards buzz later this year. The worldwide box office figures would hopefully provide some backup that Untouchable is worth a nod or two for Best Foreign film and Best Actor/Supporting for Cluzet and Sy. A film engaging from start to finish and simple storytelling at its finest. A must see.
Jude Law Gives Sherlock Holmes 3 Update
Jude Law has confirmed that both he and Robert Downey Jr. would like to have a third Sherlock Holmes adventure. Their last film A Game of Shadows took in over $540 million worldwide at the box office alone, giving Warner Bros an obvious incentive to finish the trilogy with another sequel.
Iron Man 3 writer Drew Pearce has written a script and not it’s seemingly just a matter of fitting the project into Jude and Robert’s busy schedules. As Jude himself explains:
“There’s certainly talk of it, and I know there’s a script being played around with, but Downey’s a busy boy and I’m a busy boy so we’ll see. But we want to [do another one]. We’re a very happy team and we have a lot of fun and we also think there’s still a lot of legs in the duo.”
Robert Downey Jr. will be reprising his role as Tony Stark in both Iron Man 3 and Avengers 2, while Jude Law has Anna Karenina out in cinemas now and is going to be working with Johnny Depp and Wes Anderson on The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Jennifer Lawrence Music Video For New Film
Jennifer Lawrence has helped Relativity Media adopt a petty novel approach for promoting new thriller House at the End of The Street. Beautiful Hunger Games and X-Men First Class star Jennifer Lawrence sings “All You’ve Got to Do is Fall in Love” over clips from the new horror film which arrives in UK cinemas from 21st September.
In the film, newly divorced mother (Elisabeth Shue) and her daughter Elissa (Lawrence) find the house of their dreams in a small rural town. But when startling and inexpiable events begin to happen, they learn the town is hiding a chilling secret. Years earlier, in the house next door, a daughter killed her parents and disappeared – leaving only a brother, Ryan (Max Thieriot), as the sole survivor. Against her mother’s wishes Elissa begins a relationship with the reclusive Ryan. But the closer they get, the deeper they’re all pulled into a mystery more dangerous than they ever imagined.
Jennifer’s inventive music video trailer below:
New RoboCop Suit Pictures From Remake Set
Director Jose Padilha’s RoboCop reboot has officially begun shooting, giving us our first look on set at Joel Kinnaman in character as the iconic cyborg police officer. The new suit marks a pretty big departure from the iconic metallic look of the original film. Picture below for instant comparison. It’s also hard to avoid imagining that if Batman and Iron Man ever had an unlikely superhero lovechild this is exactly what it would look like.
The new film is based on a script from The Amazing Spider-Man screenwriter James Vanderbilt and updates Paul Verhoeven’s violent 1987 cult classic. The remake cast also includes Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Jackie Earle Haley, Jay Baruchel and female lead Abbie Cornish.
RoboCop will be blasting its way into UK cinemas next summer on 9th August 2013, till then another picture of the new suit below. Let us know what you think as always.
