- Ex-LA Times Magazine folks trying to start a noir mag for tablets. LATM's crime issues were superb. Hope this happens: http://t.co/LETmuSlp #
- The Comics Reporter reviews Darwyn Cooke's adaptation of The Score: http://t.co/0Ds3LZ5t #
- Charles Ardai interviewed about the lost James M. Cain novel, The Cocktail Waitress: http://t.co/YGn3ZkjG #
- Michael Silverblatt interviews Donald Westlake on KCRW's Bookworm, 7/17/90 (via @matthewasprey): http://t.co/rWys9IAm #
- Warren Ellis looks at infographics in Darwyn Cooke's Parker adaptations: http://t.co/LlyQo4hT #
- A reader tips that there will be a segment on the upcoming Parker movie on Entertainment Tonight this evening. #
- EW–photos from the upcoming Parker film starring Jason Statham: http://t.co/2VR3YVNN #
- Tom Piccirilli just had surgery for brain cancer and could use your support: http://t.co/kUTumkn6 #
- Jack Reacher movie poster revealed (I'm doing a lot of revealing lately, aren't I?): http://t.co/k46QLCSk #
- Kez Wilson now has a dedicated website for his awesome series of Doc Savage fantasy covers: http://t.co/VHM9MhHG #
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Watched Taken earlier tonight again on FX(first saw it in the theater when it was initially released) and am going to see the sequel Tuesday evening. Anyone see it yet? I know Trent and a few others here are big fans of the first one. Neeson’s Brian Mills character has Parker’s cold, efficient tactical mindset when he wants to get something done. The action scenes, particularly the fight scenes, are well done.
Not sure if anyone knows this, but Neeson was briefly in the running to play 007 in the early 90’s. I think Taken is ample proof that the idea wasn’t as odd as some thought at the time.
I think Neeson would have made a pretty good Parker about 15-20 years ago. I think he fits the physical description of Parker quite well: he is big, shaggy, not too pretty but not too ugly and he has enormous hands!
I love the original Taken but will probably wait until this one comes out on DVD. My daughter saw it last night and said it was good but not as good as the original. She said the action scenes were really good.
I saw a short segment on the making of Taken 2 on Cinemax or something over the weekend and wow – at age 60, Neeson can still handle the action sequences as well as anyone.
Neeson will be playing Matt Scudder in A Walk Among the Tombstones set for release in 2013.
Yes, I can see a younger Neeson as Parker. Definitely.
I’ve been following the making of Tombstones way back when Harrison Ford was set to star–he was also set to star as Travis McGee back in the 90’s. Tombstones is a great Scudder, and I hope this movie rocks. It’d be awesome to have a Parker AND Scudder movie franchise up and running.
Hmmmmm so many things that pop out here. I can’t think of any cnrerut well known people who have converted (I mean reverted’ to Islam). But mixed relationships pop up. Jemima Goldsmith/Khan and Princess Diana for example. It seems a little provocative and a little exotic whenever I have glanced (usually in the hairdressers!) at this sort of article with more cnrerut examples. Liam in the cnrerut culture probably thinks it reasonable that Aslan is representative of other claimants. Truth is where you find it it doesn’t matter where. Christianity of course holds that there is One God. In that sense it all seems the same from some quarters. It seems no one has the truth but an aspect of something unknown but described by each religion. But the absolute revelation of God is the Trinity this is submerged in the global agreement that three claimants have the same One God. I would say that the problem is that we are globally admitting one God but not admitting the Trinity as it is divisive. We need to be absolute in the faith about the Trinitarian revelation of God. I liked GK Chesterton’s description of the Islamic deity as the lonely God’. The world of creation as the plaything of the lonely God is quite different to the image of God which is Trinitarian revealed in creation. Actors and artists would have a hard time in pure Islam .no images of human faces can be painted, music is out, no mingling of men and women. Of course all over the Middle East there are actors, artists and musicians of various descriptions. But the pure interpretations emerging through Saudi, Muslim Brotherhood etc will take them back to the texts and abolish these things where they establish sharia.
Ok. I saw Taken 2. Brought my Dad because my gf refuses to see these violent films, and another bud I usually see these types of movies with had to work. There will be spoilers.
The family of the Albanian thugs Neeson killed in the first Taken want revenge. While Neeson is doing bodyguard duty in Istanbul, his wife and daughter decide to surprise visit him there. His wife is divorcing the rich husband from 1, so that old spark is starting to reheat between Neeson and Famke. While in Istanbul Neeson and wife are kidnapped, but the daughter eludes capture, and is helpful to Neeson via a tiny cellphone Neeson hides on his body the size of a contact lens case.
Neeson frees himself, and escapes, but can’t save Famke. He gets his daughter to saftey at the US Embassy, then hunts down and dispatches the Albanians and frees his wife. The end.
OK. The film is a well-shot action film. The fight scenes, car chases and explosions from 1 are here in plentiful supply. You definitely have to suspend your disbelief when you consider Neeson almost seems super-human in this one. He can calculate where he is while blindfolded by counting to himself, noticing things like birds singing and the such–pretty hard to swallow. He of course manages to shoot everyone and never misses, although everybody that aims at him seems to be very poor marksmen.;-) lol
I think the plot of this one is kind of tired. I mean, what next? The family dog gets “Taken”? They should have written a script where his work as a bodyguard causes the action in the plot, and maybe they could’ve had his four BBQ buddies (all ex-CIA) enter the fray and help him out with some firepower instead of eating all his food. The theme of every sequel having to depend on another family member being “Taken” is as unbelievable as the Brody family having all that trouble with huge maneateing Sharks in Jaws 1,2,3,4. C’mon. The guy is a professional bodyguard–that’s a high-risk occupation.
But if you loved Taken, you’ll probably love the sequel. Everything that made the first memorable is also in the sequel.
Thanks for the review Dave! Sounds like a typical action movie sequel. I despise titles that just tack on a number at the end. Even “Taken Again” would have been a better title than Taken 2!
Dave, thanks for the overview. I liked the first “Taken” very much and was happy to hear a sequel was in the works, but after seeing the trailer for “Taken 2”, I was already disappointed, and your review confirmed what I suspected: basically a rehashing of Taken 1 with the wife now instead of the daughter. This time, the trailer was spot on! :) I was thinking they should do a story of someone abducted here in the US, like a daughter of one of Liam Neeson’s friends from the first film, to give some light to the human trafficking that goes on here in America (which most people are totally clueless about). oh, well, one less ticket I need to be concerned about buying. Thanks!
Yeah, wait for it to hit Cable or Netflix, if you reconsider and decide to see it. I could think of several plotlines better than the one they went with.
My Dad, however, loved it, but he loves ANYTHING with gunfire and car chases. He’s an old-school action film nut from way back (seriously way back; like from the Audie Murphy/Johnny Weismuller days).
We agree on stuff like Eastwood, Bronson, etc., but he’ll watch crap like Van Damme and Steven Seagal and I would rather watch paint dry than watch that mindless crap. We’re both big Liam Neeson fans, though. My father rated The Gray as his favorite film of 2011.
I hear you. My father was kind of the same way as yours, and I am more like you. I will gladly wait until cable for this one. Thanks again.
Just finished re-reading the last three Parker books (again). The last three work as one long novel, or “triptych” as DEW called them. I was a little bummed to see Dalesia go, I liked that character, but I guess it made no sense for Parker to leave him alive knowing he’d rat Parker and McWhitney out if caught.
Imagining Parker in a Bed and Breafast in rural New England pretending he’s a “leaf-peeper” is proof that DEW injected some humor into the Parker series now and then. I still say, although Parker still uses violence if it’s an expedient way of solving a problem, he seems to be a little less prone to do so in the later books. That’s why I envision Parker as an older man in these books, maybe 60’s, but a very strong and healthy 60’s. Still doesn’t jibe with Parker having served in WW2, but it’s at least in the ballpark, chronologically. I guess if the films make reference of Parker being a Vet, they’ll switch WW2 with Iraq.
What astonishes me is the fact DEW didn’t lose a step. The consistency of the quality matched with the prolificity (I hope that’s a real word) leaves my jaw hanging open. There are very few writers, of any genre, that this can be said about.
Charles Kelly’s bio of Earl Drake creator Dan J. Marlowe, called Gunshots in Another Room is out in hard copy and Kindle. I bought it for my Kindle and have already started reading it–very interesting. I’ve long been a fan of the Earl Drake character in particular and Marlowe in general and this bio is indespensible for someone like me.
For those who don’t know, Marlowe created Drake and introduced him in 1962’s The Name of the Game is Death. He wasn’t called Drake in that book, but used an alias called Roy Martin (Drake itself is an alias). Drake is a Heister and later in the series becomes (reluctantly) an agent for the Govt.
Marlowe was an awesome writer. Many of the Drakes are available for Kindle, for about three bucks. I’d recommend starting with Game and then reading One Endless Hour, it’s sequel. Marlowe also wrote some other excellent standalones like Four for the Money and The Vengeance Man.
Highly recommended.