Gripping 'Taken' grabs your attention and won't let go
"Taken" (two-disc extended cut) "Taken" is a swift, no-nonsense thriller - the cinematic equivalent of a karate chop to the throat. Liam Neeson plays Bryan, a retired agent of the U.S. government trying to rebuild his relationship with his teenage daughter, whom he tended to ignore while carrying out covert missions overseas back in the day. When thugs kidnap his daughter in Paris, Bryan slips back into assassin mode. He races to France, where he methodically and brutally enters the frightening underworld of human trafficking to find his daughter.
"Taken" doesn't try to be anything more than what it is: a fast-paced revenge thriller. On that level, it works well. You won't find much character development or poetic dialogue here, but the always-dependable Neeson and director Pierre Morel deliver the action goods with stripped-down style and force. The two-disc DVD set is a nice package. You get two commentaries, an unrated cut of the film (with some added violence that, in my opinion, improves the film) and behind-the-scenes featurettes. (The second disc contains a downloadable copy of the film.) The Blu-ray adds an extra feature called "Black OPS field manual." (PG-13; Fox, $34.98 or $39.99 for Blu-ray)
"The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and "El Dorado" (Paramount Centennial Collection) An embarrassing confession: Until I sat down with these DVDs, I'd never seen a John Wayne movie before. Given his status as a Hollywood legend, that just seemed, I don't know, wrong. Thankfully, Paramount comes to the rescue with its latest "Centennial Collection" releases.
First up is John Ford's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," which I loved. This 1962 movie brings Wayne together with Jimmy Stewart in a story that's both a celebration of classic Western archetypes and a savage deconstruction of them. Wayne plays Tom Doniphon, a cocky rancher/gunman who plans to marry Hallie (Vera Miles), a local waitress, just as soon as he musters up the courage to ask her. Stewart plays Ransom Stoddard, a bookish lawyer who winds up in Doniphon's town after being robbed and beaten by the town bad guy, Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). The cast is uniformly good, but I was particularly impressed with Wayne's ability to poke holes in his standard tough-guy persona. The dialogue crackles, and Ford's black-and-white images give the film a nicely claustrophobic feel. This one's a dandy.
Next is Howard Hawks' 1967 film "El Dorado," a lighter, more formulaic but still entertaining Western that stars Wayne and Robert Mitchum as longtime friends who band together to save a family's farm from crooked rancher Bart Jason (Ed Asner). Wayne's role here is standard Alpha Male stuff, but Mitchum gives the film some juice as the alcoholic sheriff trying to recover his gunslinging mojo.
As is usual for the "Centennial Collection" line, both remastered films look fantastic on these two-disc DVD sets. The sets also boast solid extras, including new commentaries and retrospective documentaries that explore the making of the films and put them in context. Note: These will be available on Tuesday, May 19. (NR; Paramount, $24.99 each)