Taken

17 year old Kim (Maggie Grace), daughter to a government security preventer Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), goes on holiday to Paris with a Friend to a cousins house.  With her Dad’s permission, he takes her to the airport and asks her to ring upon landing, ring each night and to let him know the address of where she is staying.  Upon landing in France, she and her friend meet a french boy, they share a taxi as it is cheaper and invites them to a party.  They inform him that they are own their own.  They get kidnapped.  The state starts looking for him after his destructive investigation.  He will “pull down the eiffel tower” if needs be.

The kidnapping is done as if it is presented on a plate.  After they get kidnapped, the pace of the film is fast, which is great it is 93 minutes long.  While the action is initially good in the first half, the climax action is too video gamey, walking into a room and take everyone out style.  It also becomes more of a hitman scenario as he kills on the way.  At one point he gets into the “house” where the Albanians are, finds him self with Marko and manages to take them all out.  Although cringeworthy, was done  like a cheesey Bond.

The best bit was when Liam Neeson is in the crime scene and he reconstructs the kidnapping.  It really hits home that she has been Taken.  Being a fan of Liam Neeson (from Schindler’s list) I am disappointed but there were moments.  Although the beginning is never engaging, you are meant to feel Liam Neeson as a boring Father.
IMDB Taken

Trailer

Rating 5.2/10

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The Last Samurai

Tom Cruise stars in this action war adventure as an American war hero who has fought the American Indians in his home land.  He is asked to serve in the civil war of Japan.  He gets captured by the Samurai and is kept in their society.  He can not escape due to the fierce winter.  He begins to learn Japanese and embraces their culture.  When he is released, both sides of the civil war have been revealed and he must decide which side to take.  He chooses the Samurai.

Tom Cruise fits the perfect American captain, Nathan Algren.  Billy Conolly is present at the beginning, he dies in the first action encounter which does the film good as he is incredibly annoying.  Timothy Spall is casted too.  Ken Watanabe is the Samurai leader, Katsumoto.  He excels his role and makes the Samurai village atmospheric.

The story only really starts when he gets captured.  There is obviously fighting and dueling, which was necessary.  It was done originally and very you felt like you were watching it in the village.  Slow motion effects and atmospheric brilliance from Tom Cruise.

Even though it is biased towards the samurai, you are engrossed and you feel for Ken Wantanabe.  Needed the beginning chopped and the war at the end left out or made shorter, could have been an all time favourite.  The ending is beautiful.

IMDB The Last Samurai

Trailer

Rating: 6.9/10

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Minority Report

A Steven Spielburg science fiction set in the  year 2050 based on a short story.  The Pre-crime Department arrests murderers who have not yet committed their crime thereby reducing crime and saving lives.  This involves visions from the future determining the  next victim and the perpetrator by three gifted people called the “precogs” floating undisturbed in a pool which are then relayed to a perspex screen as flashing images.  The images can be interacted with by the use of a glove that can reach in, pin point,  zoom in, rotate and rewind to collect data ready for the Team to act on before the event actually takes place.  Tom Cruise is the head of the Pre-crime Unit and only he and a select few have the authority to get into the “precog” pool room.  But he is named as the next perpetrator and his Team turn on him, so he has to escape.

This is quite clever and thought provoking.  Apparently he does not know the victim?  Why would he kill someone he did not know and does he have a choice?

I enjoyed this story and the ingenuity of the future.  It was a pleasant ride and did not end up in the usual whacking it was much more inventive than that!  Some memorable scenes – anyone squeamish about eyes should look away!  Samantha Morton, Colin Farrell and Max von Sydow (Shutter Island) also star.

IMDB Minority Report

Trailer

Rating: 8.2/10

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Inception

The ability to plant an idea in somebody’s subconscious that will take seed and grow is Inception.  In order to do this DiCaprio puts his victims into a dream state and he can take his colleagues with him all sharing the same dream to get the job done.  We are taken into a dream within a dream within a dream – 3 levels of subconciousness where time is compounded so that in the 1st level, 5 minutes of our time becomes a week, 2nd level becomes 6 months and in the 3rd, its 10 years so you can get a lot of work done in very little time the deeper you go.  Bringing everyone back has to be properly co-ordinated or you could end up in the subconscious abyss (a whopping 50 years or more before returning to reality).   Awesome anti-gravity sequences, flashes of genius in terms of story telling and mind bending graphics together with a large cast of stunt people. I loved all of the cast but Leonardo Di Caprio needs special mention and so does Marion Cotillard.  I watched the first 30 mins twice because I didn’t get the opening sequence, am I the only one?  This affected the rating.
IMDB: Inception

Trailer

Rating 8.9/10

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Limitless

Ever wondered what it was like to be a super-intelligent human and in a state of hyperawareness?  You can figure out what the title means.

A simple little pill does all of the above to Bradley Cooper who lives in disarray in his apartment writing his novel which never gets started.  One little bag of the stuff helps him pull his life together, he cleans up his act like Mary Poppins and achieves runaway business success!  However, all drugs have side effects and the demise of his secret success is just around every corner.  Anna Friel shows what the drug can do to your complexion and Robert De Niro appears over 2/3rds of the way through the film so don’t be hanging on the edge of your seat for him.  Bradley Cooper takes you on a journey through his drug addiction seeing patterns where there have never been before and using foresight that can dodge death or paying the rent to being a crippling addict waiting for his next fix.  To sum up; one edge of the seat moment, the one and only Bradley Cooper, and one witty one-liner at the end of the film which makes you want to punch the air, and then feel silly cos the rest of the film did not match that feeling at all hence the rating 6.5 due mostly to a weak story line.

IMDB Link: Limitless

Trailer

Rating 6.8/10

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