Escape to the Movies: Taken 3 - The One Where Liam Neeson Beats People Up

Baresark

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T8B95 said:
Baresark said:
Also, you fell asleep in it... I can't help but feel you should not actually be reviewing it at all because your opinion is that it's still crap despite not having been conscious for the whole movie. If I fall asleep during a movie and then find the portion I do see not satisfying, I don't go around telling people it's a crap movie, I actually try to see the whole thing before I give my opinion. Journalistic integrity doesn't extend to your show all of the suddenly being about a first impression of a medium that first impressions are useless on.
Disagree with you there. If a movie, specifically a balls-to-the-wall action movie such as this one, causes part of its audience to fall asleep in the movie theatre (and said audience doesn't happen to include my mother), that has to be an indictment of the movie on some level. Yeah, maybe the bit he slept through was the best, most engaging, and most profound piece of cinema since No Country for Old Men (unlikely), but the movie still can't get full points because IT PUT ITS AUDIENCE TO SLEEP. And if the rest of the movie is trash, the chance that the small part the audience slept through is good is rather slim.

OT: It's a completely superfluous third movie in a series that let's be completely honest, didn't even need a second. Did anyone actually expect it to be good?
That's fine. I don't agree. I loved 300 (from a macho manly perspective), but I can fall asleep in 300 if I'm tired. My guess is that Bob (who seems to make no moves to take care of himself, physically speaking), is actually quite tired all the time. That is what happens when you don't exercise and eat crap food all the time, especially when you hit your 30's.

Also, clearly this franchise didn't need anything beyond the first movie. I can't agree with you more on that.
 

Scarim Coral

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Oct 29, 2010
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I take it Bob has never seen or read Paddington Bear before? Ok sure that doesn't mean the film itself will automatically be good but still I am fond of that bear when I was a little.
 

WarpedLord

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Scarim Coral said:
I take it Bob has never seen or read Paddington Bear before? Ok sure that doesn't mean the film itself will automatically be good but still I am fond of that bear when I was a little.
I think it's mainly just surprising because the trailers made it look like typical kiddie-movie slapstick garbage (see also: Smurfs, Scooby Doo, Underdog, Alvin and the Chipmunks, etc). Really, though... my first though when I hit that blurb was... "I don't know, Bob... isn't it your job to tell us if it's good???"
 

Entitled

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SnakeoilSage said:
I really don't get the whole "dad's always right" angle. He's former-CIA and he's a concerned father. Of course he's going to have reservations about his daughter going anywhere without an escort. The fact that he's proven right is just grounds for making the movie in the first place. Would you be happier if this somehow balked "traditional gender roles" and the very real threat of human trafficking just so his daughter can return home safe and Famke Jannsen can turn to Liam after two hours of them playing chess just to go "HA!" And then a big splash of "VISIT EUROPE" tops off the film.
You are arguing with the interpretation of a movies outside cultural context, based on an in-universe justification.

It's like if someone said that Darth Vader's helmet is inspired by traditional Japanese Kabuto helmets, and you would reply "Nah, actually it's shaped that way to fit his breathing equipment inside it".

One does not exclude the other. Just because something has in-universe justification, doesn't mean that the idea for it came up without a reason.

Taken is not a documentary, it's not like the creators where forced to follow Liam Neeson in a former-CIA concerned father role in the first place, and then got stuck with the inevitable consequences. They consciously wrote that setup instead of a billion other possible ones.

That it ended up being vaguely plausible, just means that the plot is not broken. But beyond that, we can ALSO discuss what the motives might have been to set up that one narrative out of all possible ones, and yeah, "pandering to disgruntled patriarchs with power fantasies about restoring their authority" sounds a pretty spot on guess.
 

Demagogue

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That was beautiful... the ad that played before MovieBob's clip was the trailer for Taken 3...
 

MailOrderClone

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While I don't really have anything to the Taken 3 discussion, I did want to drop in and say that I appreciated the disclaimer at the start of the video. It may have been halfway a gag, but it is always welcome to get that sort of information out in the open, as well as a welcome bit of insight into just how dull Bob thought the film was.
 

Realitycrash

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I never get the FUCKING point of bleeping out 'fucking', especially since we are allowed to swear here. The entire word isn't even bleeped, we can still very much tell by its syntactic positioning in the sentence, that it begins with 'f' and ends with 'ing' that yes, you, Moviebob, are indeed saying 'Fucking'. So what's the deal here? Is there really such a dense Escapist-reviewer policy which mandates bleeping? Well it obviously doesn't/didn't cover Yahtzee...Or Jim Sterling.
Is it because MovieBob is indeed adverse to swearing? Well, obviously not, since he was swearing, and we can tell he is swearing. So...Someone, anyone, just...Tell me.
 

WhiteTigerShiro

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WarpedLord said:
I think it's mainly just surprising because the trailers made it look like typical kiddie-movie slapstick garbage (see also: Smurfs, Scooby Doo, Underdog, Alvin and the Chipmunks, etc).
I dunno, I didn't get that impression from the trailer at all. The movie looks well animated for the most part, and the humor looks generally clever; like when the guy is calling his insurance company to ask if they cover bears, or when Paddington is walking through the subway station trying to figure out how to act human. Also it has a cute bear! :D

Meanwhile trailers for Alvin and Smurfs definitely made me groan at how bland they looked, and the cheap attempts at pop humor just made me roll my eyes. I mean, I get that they're kid's shows, but they can still have clever jokes. Also, neither of them had a cute bear.

Really, though... my first though when I hit that blurb was... "I don't know, Bob... isn't it your job to tell us if it's good???"
Well, the movie isn't out yet, so it's possible it hasn't been previewed in his area yet and he was just offering-up his reaction to the opinions he's heard so far.
 

ToastiestZombie

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Paradoxrifts said:
And that's one diatribe too far. I'm hitting the ejection button and escaping from Escape To The Movies. There is just not enough fun in these videos to justify wading through all of the negativity. If people enjoy this then all the more power to them, but I'm out. Can anyone suggest a replacement?
Yep, even when he says "it's fine" at the end it doesn't diminish the completely pointless attack on divorced fathers that manages to turn "caring for your children's safety" into "lousy slob father power fantasies for escapism after alimony payments".
 

The Real Sandman

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Paradoxrifts said:
And that's one diatribe too far. I'm hitting the ejection button and escaping from Escape To The Movies. There is just not enough fun in these videos to justify wading through all of the negativity. If people enjoy this then all the more power to them, but I'm out.
Too true. I've been watching Bob's content since he was first an independent Youtube channel years ago, and in these past couple years his content has been getting more preachy and bitter, and not in an enjoyable way.
Paradoxrifts said:
Can anyone suggest a replacement?
I find Red Letter Media's review show Half in the Bag [http://redlettermedia.com/half-in-the-bag/2014-episodes/] to be a good choice for comedic reviews.

Lately I've been watching/listening to Mark Kermode on the kermodeandmayo [https://www.youtube.com/user/kermodeandmayo] Youtube channel for "professional" reviews, although he can be quite funny as well.
 

Ark of the Covetor

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Oh christ on a bike, will all you blubbing precious wee men give it a rest already? Every week I pop in to the thread to see if there's any interesting discussion of the movie, and it's the same cabal of whingers complaining that Bob isn't being right-wing enough for their tastes. If you're genuinely incapable of tolerating a reviewer analysing the movie from a political perspective you don't share, might I suggest you check out the Family Research Council or something? Seems like more your speed.
 

kuolonen

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I don't really mind Bob calling taken out for the jerkoff-powerfantasy that it is (and seriously, taken is very blatant one at that), but how about calling it out on "Bob's favorite movie" -list as well. Machete would be a good start.
 

The Choke

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"I was so bored that I fell asleep, so for all I know the movie wasn't that bad."

Bob, if it was so boring that you fell asleep, it was bad.
 

The Real Sandman

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Ark of the Covetor said:
Oh christ on a bike, will all you blubbing precious wee men give it a rest already? Every week I pop in to the thread to see if there's any interesting discussion of the movie, and it's the same cabal of whingers complaining that Bob isn't being right-wing enough for their tastes. If you're genuinely incapable of tolerating a reviewer analysing the movie from a political perspective you don't share, might I suggest you check out the Family Research Council or something? Seems like more your speed.
The tolerance is strong in you.

There is a world of difference between analyzing art from a political perspective and going on a big ol' ranting spree. My political views rarely, if ever, stop me from enjoying movies, TV shows, or indeed internet commentators with differing views. You can disagree with someone or something politically and still enjoy them.

I disagree with Escapist contributor emeritus Jim Sterling on a few topics, but I still find him a pleasant and knowledgeable fellow, and I absolutely LOVE his content! And when he does get politically riled up, he states or argues his views in a mature and affable manner. Where Bob as of late will just descend into hostility and hyperbole.
 

8BitArchitect

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Taken 3 was not as good as Taken 2, which was not as good as Taken. It didn't seem to fit well as a sequel to 2, it contained a number of instances which brought me out of my suspension of disbelief, and it didn't have the singular drive that the first (and even second) film did propelling you toward the end.

All that said, it was still a decent to good action movie. The chases were decent, the fights were great (Taken has the best 'real' fights I've seen outside a martial arts movie, although I'm not a huge movie buff, so my scope is somewhat limited), and the sneaking and snooping worked reasonably well (even if they detracted from the action occasionally).

Rating this a one star movie when you didn't even see the whole thing is pretty unfair, since falling asleep in the middle of the movie is obviously on you.
 

vagabondwillsmile

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Ark of the Covetor said:
Oh christ on a bike, will all you blubbing precious wee men give it a rest already? Every week I pop in to the thread to see if there's any interesting discussion of the movie, and it's the same cabal of whingers complaining that Bob isn't being right-wing enough for their tastes. If you're genuinely incapable of tolerating a reviewer analysing the movie from a political perspective you don't share, might I suggest you check out the Family Research Council or something? Seems like more your speed.
Says the person with the most hyperbolic, disproportionate, and dare I say angriest response in the entire thread.

It's a discussion about a silly action movie with a silly story -- there are multiple view points being presented with multiple ways to examine the material; and most everybody is respecting each other.

Feel free to join in.
 

Shjade

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ToastiestZombie said:
Paradoxrifts said:
And that's one diatribe too far. I'm hitting the ejection button and escaping from Escape To The Movies. There is just not enough fun in these videos to justify wading through all of the negativity. If people enjoy this then all the more power to them, but I'm out. Can anyone suggest a replacement?
Yep, even when he says "it's fine" at the end it doesn't diminish the completely pointless attack on divorced fathers that manages to turn "caring for your children's safety" into "lousy slob father power fantasies for escapism after alimony payments".
aka: what the Taken series is.

Nothing wrong with calling a spade a spade.
 

rorychief

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Mar 1, 2013
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The snarky remarks regarding Liam Neeson's recent proclivity for taking dumb movie roles seems a little misinformed. I'm getting a sense of smug oh the mighty have fallen from Bob, like he's enjoying claiming jaded authority over predicting the failing trajectory of Neeson's career. The guy's wife died and throwing himself into his work is obviously a way of coping. He's taking random roles indiscriminately not because he's desperate to stay famous or has bills to pay, but because widowers need to keep busy and working is familiar comforting routine.
I don't expect Bob have to enjoy his movies, but I feel like maybe he hasn't researched enough from the way he talks about what a novel gimmick it was for Oskar Schindler to take on an action movie. As though this switch in Neeson's pattern of selecting roles just happened to coincide with the death of the most important person in his life. I'm surprised by Bob. He's not normally caught short like this.

Sincerely, a defensive irishman.
 

VonBrewskie

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Thanks for that disclaimer at the beginning Bob. It's only fair. But if it made you fall asleep, that's a problem. I'd bet you try really hard not to waste your time. I just watched your things Bob doesn't know about and won't cover edition of the Big Picture very recently. again. Second time I think. Seemed familiar. This movie seems to fall into that place where you could use some shut-eye, but you'd rather it be in your own bed. You're fighting a good fight man. I appreciate your efforts. Know that when movies are concerned, your opinion is very important to me. I want to pay people for good film. I wait to see what you say. Others too, but you are pretty much a primary source for me Bob. Might as well be anyway. I respect your opinion boss. You know what the f*** you're talking about.