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Thursday, March 11, 2010

BD impressions: Taken

8:46 PM / BD Impressions / 3 Comments

TAKEN: in which ex-secret service man Liam Neeson travels to Paris and basically kills everyone. I'd be lying if I said this was a thought-provoking or particularly inventive film, but damn it if it isn't hellishly entertaining. Produced and co-written by Luc Besson, who by my estimation is in a class of his own when it comes to popcorn action cinema, the basic plot involves the kidnap of Neeson's daughter while on holiday by a gang of eastern European people traffickers with connections to a shady ring of Middle Eastern gangsters, and Neeson stopping at nothing to rescue her. It's all absurdly over the top, if not just plain absurd FULL STOP (and you don't get more absurd than Neeson's attempt at an American accent, something he seems to abandon about half-way through in favour of just using his normal voice), but if you've seen the TRANSPORTER or DISTRICT 13 movies, or indeed earlier Besson fare like LÉON (which, while more subdued and more thoughtful on the whole, was not without its loony moments), you'll know exactly what to expect. A rollicking rip-roaring roller-coaster ride, to quote the ebullient Paul Ross.

Incidentally, apparently the US theatrical release was cut to get a PG-13 rating. Given that this is surely the most deliriously violent film Besson has ever produced, I'm struggling to get my head round (a) how, even with the most judicious cutting, this could be achieved, and (b) how anyone could possibly think this was a good idea.

Image quality: Solid release from 20th Century Fox, reminding me a lot of the overall look (in terms of detail, grain and overall texture) of QUANTUM OF SOLACE, also from Fox. There's a bit of ringing around the left and right edges of the frame, which might be indicative of light filtering or a less than ideal downconversion from a higher resolution (does anyone know if this received a 4K digital intermediate?), and detail is perhaps a hair lower than I expected, but really I'm just nitpicking. It's my job to do that, though, and while TAKEN is a fine-looking disc indeed, it falls shy of FOX's best (for instance, JENNIFER'S BODY or I, ROBOT). Still, a very nice disc all round. 9.5/10

Taken
studio: 20th Century Fox; country: UK; region code: B; codec: AVC;
file size: 27.8 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 42.71 Mbit/sec

3 Comments

 
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