Today, South Africa!

Again, it's a quiet weekend for movie releases. Next Friday finally sees Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy II pop up in South African cinemas (which I will be missing, grrrr!), but today we have Liam Neeson's new Action Thriller, Taken.

“I don’t know you who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you’re looking for a ransom, I can tell you, I don’t have money. But what I do have is a very particular set of skills, acquired over a very long career in the shadows. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that will be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you. And I will kill you.”


Written by The Professional, The Transporter and La Femme Nikita's Luc Besson, Taken looks like a cross between Frantic, Man on Fire and Death Wish. The voice of Aslan himself, Liam Neeson, layers some darkness onto his usually heroic onscreen persona, playing a former CIA operative who takes justice into his own hands when his daughter is kidnapped while vacationing in Paris. Famke Janssen co-stars.

Taken is one of those rare films that is actually being in released in South Africa before the States - other previous examples include the Euro/Brit-made Children of Men, Sunshine and The Descent. This situation means that the film has yet to be extensively reviewed. However, having already screened in France, Australia and some other countries, critics there have given the film a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 71% Fresh.

So while it looks pretty derivative, if you are in the mood for some badass, gritty action in the vein of the Bourne Identity, Taken may not be a bad option for you. The film is rated No Under 16 for violence, so it should be an intense cinematic experience.

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