Movies - Wednesday, March 31
The Age
Thursday March 25, 2010
Taken (2008)Showtime Premiere, 9.55pmTHE borderline offensive From Paris with Love was recently in cinemas for one reason: hungry studio executives wanted a quick, similar successor from producer/scenarist Luc Besson and director Pierre Morel to their unexpected 2008 hit. Taken was a reminder that while Besson can be a prolific maker of mindlessly enjoyable B-movies, he occasionally zeroes in on something more. Taken is a brutal, vengeful movie about a resourceful man cutting away every tentacle of the Paris underworld. It was pro-torture, xenophobic and pushed various social buttons but it struck a chord with audiences because it was grounded on a father's love for his child. Besson's masterstroke is to show the bond between Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) and his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace), who he reluctantly allows to travel to France with a friend. They are kidnapped by Albanian gangsters stoking the white-slave trade with holidaying American girls, and former CIA operative Mills swings into action. The movie shows parents their worst fears €” the girls are addicted to heroin to make them more pliable as prostitutes €” and then lets them cheer on the solution. Neeson merely does a good Lee Marvin in a film where everyone is complicit.Every Other Week (2006)SBS One, 11.05pmSwedish comedy about a pair of brothers, both divorced single parents, who help each other get their lives in order.
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