Taken has received mediocre reviews, and some analysts are surprised that this Luc Besson-written action picture is the "unexpected" early-Sunday-estimate box-office winner. Let me guess why this is a "surprise": because industry-types didn’t expect fiftysomething Liam Neeson, who’s not a trim Matt Damon or a lithe Jason Statham, to grab audiences as a neck-snapping, elbow-to-throat, killing-machine hero.
Taken isn’t great cinema, but take it from someone who sat happily with a nearly-full Saturday audience that cheered most every time Neeson took out one of the creeps who abucted his daughter: A father out to rescue his daughter by any means necessary, with a solid actor in the center of a kinetically-edited action pic–that stuff plays very well with a lot of Americans… and I’ll bet a lot of people outside of America, too.
Why, I’ll bet some of the audience is even old enough to have cheered Charles Bronson in Death Wish and Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry.
There’s a demo that still goes to opening-weekend movies that shouldn’t be ignored.
Snap on, Liam.
This movie was awesome. Unexpectedly short and sweet. Everyone should go see it.
I have been wanting to see this movie since I saw the previews early this month. I think Liam Neeson is a fantastic actor and a very convincing cast for this character – and this is coming from a 27 year old! I am glad the movie did well this weekend.
I was just surprised because Taken came out last August in Australia (and France last February a quick web search just told me) and has been on DVD for quite some time … so apparently the fact it was easily downloadable in HQ didn’t hurt the box office.
Thanks for the info Scott. I wonder why it was released in the US 11 months after it was released in France?
I’m never moved to see a movie opening day/night unless it has “Harry Potter” attached to the beginning of the title. But I was really in the mood for some escapist entertainment and got it in spades at “Taken.”
I was telling one of my friend in France about this cool action movie he should go see when it comes out there. When I said “Taken, with Liam Neeson”, he laughed and told me he saw it more than 6 months ago.
I guess because it’s a Luc Besson/Europa production, it came out there before finding a distributor in the US. Good job Europa!
Liam Neeson is a god among men. He is a great actor and his voice is fantastic. I’d rather see him in any role than most of the so-called stars we have today. Good for him! This shows the studio suits that not everyone who goes to the movies is in the 18-30 demographic.
Bad, bad, bad movie.
I hardly saw any advertisment for this film – happened to see and review a trailer on the internet while looking at what was coming up a the local theaters – and immediately was interested. Maybe my being a 57 year old male that is a little tired of 20 something adonisis running around the screen might have somethint to do with it. My wife and I have not been to a movie in six months so when we walked into the theater, looked up and saw that almost every seat was filled with many young and “older” ticket payers, I knew we had made a good decision. We werent’ dissaponted. My wife and I both cuckled when we overheard someone down several roads exclaim, “I really like this guy.” I think it wsa because of what he was doing to the bad guys. It was very entertaining if you like action movies and where the good guy whips the crap out of the bad guys. Also, every parent can easily imagine themselves doing the very same thing to get back one of their children – and with as much anger.
this movie was amazing. im 17 and me and my two friends went to see it. it kept your heart racing the entire time, plus you couldn’t help but love liam as the protective father.
I liked Taken for what it was: a fun, short, action movie. It wasn’t trying to hard to be multidimensional or poignant. It is what it is.
“Taken” was a great movie, it was nice seeing Liam Neeson in a movie again. I though he did a great job, the fight scenes were incredible, the critics who said this movie wasn’t good are the reason why nobody listens to their reviews anymore.
Many times critics say movies are crap, but it turns out the critics words are crap and the movies are awesome. I advise everyone to see this movie, a man with a past fighting to rescue his daughter, and when I say “FIGHING” I mean kicking @zz with style.
great movie – it was bourne without the pace-slowing political intrigue or the nausea-inducing handycams. neesom doesn’t need to have every single one of his roles be ‘oscar worthy’ – if nothing else, this demonstrates his breadth and versatility as an actor
amen! and it probably doesn’t hurt that Neeson is a great actor and at least seems to have a brain. I thoroughly enjoyed this one
saw it Saturday and loved it – very intense, fast-paced action flick. Still puzzled on how it managed to get a PG-13 – nothing like bringing kids to a movie about girls being kidnapped, drugged up, and sold into prostitution – gives a whole new meaning to Hotel for Dogs – ha!