Abduction

Over the break I had watched the movie Abduction with Taylor Lautner and I was personally impressed. I've never been the biggest fan of him or his movies, but I was actually impressed on how this movie turned out.

The way that the movie had incorporated his story and his parents I thought was truly interesting. When he found out that he was adopted, I thought that that was such a good turn of events to bring about how his parents were not actually his parents.

When I watched this movie I had watched it with my mom. Now granted, she was probably asleep for some of it, she even said that she liked it and ought that it was a great movie. I didn't exactly think that it was a great movie but I liked how they incorporated everything into it.

In a weird way this movie sort of reminded me of a Taken type of movie. I only think this cause of the fighting scenes in the movie, even though it was a totally different base line.

But anyway, if you think that fighting and killing are awesome and just happen to like Taylor Lautner as a plus, this movie is for you.

Taken 2

I wasn't taken by Taken 2. What can I say?

Sometimes – only sometimes – under a blue moon will a sequel be on par with it's predecessor. Taken 2 is a clear cut case of this rule. Taken 1 told a story that audiences hadn't seen in a while. A daughter is adducted on a trip to Europe and Liam Neeson, the overprotective dad, goes hunting for her kidnappers. It's one of those movies where bad guys just keep dying.... and dying.

Taken 2 lives up to that same level of death. Liam Neeson kills everyone. It gets tiring.

We get it, a hollywood producer sitting in an L.A. office somewhere decided that turing a half way decent film into a franchise would earn him that big bonus. We know that producers sometimes force a sequel that shouldn't be made in the first place. Taken 2 is that atypical sequel we all know and despise.

We know that sequels (and prequels) are notoriously bad. It's a given fact that as film students, we can be an excellent judge of a film's story and quality. We can spot when the 'Hollywood Industrial Complex' tries to pull a fast one on us. We're better than sequels like this.

We're better than Taken 2. Taken 2 is a weak attempt at an exciting thriller. Stereotypes permeate the plot line. The writer has decided to play up the Middle Eastern/Muslim card this time, turning the characters into something we've all seen before. It's a cheap and quick way to play off the fears of the American audience, while offending the vast majority of the Muslim community.

Plain and simple this movie is just boring. The unimaginative storyline is predictable and boring. Essentially every White character that wasn't kidnapped last movie was kidnapped this time.

Instead of Liam Neeson hunting down the bad guys, he and his wife have been kidnapped and will be executed when they are brought to Afghanistan. The bad guys want revenge for all of the bad guys killed in the first movie. And now, the 17 year-old daughter has to come save her parents.