Schoolio's Movie Corner

[RotationSlimWang]

My flatmate made me watch Taken tonight. Can't remember the last film I saw that made me want to punch it in the nuts so hard that wasn't in any way related to Frank Miller. Apologies to anybody who follows me on Twitter, but if it's any consolation I was ranting out loud too.

What a racist, xenophobic, misogynistic piece of shit. A racist, xenophobic, misogynistic piece of shit that made 200 million dollars and a sequel. I don't drink nearly enough.

I haven't watched Taken yet as I've thoroughly tired of almost every movie about badasses going on killing sprees (because they're never as badass as I, myself, would be) but I'm curious about this comment as I've never heard that particular criticism. What's xenophobic and misogynistic about it?

[MissingPerson]

I haven't watched Taken yet as I've thoroughly tired of almost every movie about badasses going on killing sprees (because they're never as badass as I, myself, would be) but I'm curious about this comment as I've never heard that particular criticism. What's xenophobic and misogynistic about it?

Basically, the whole start of the movie is establishing that the women in Liam Neeson's life - his ex wife and daughter - have dared to try and have lives without him and go places without his permission, the silly bitches. The rest of the film is all about teaching them how dangerously foolish they were. And you can level that criticism at just about every film of that stripe to some extent, but Taken goes a whole other place with it. It's not just an underlying thing, it's pretty much central to the premise. Literally five minutes after they start making their own decisions, everybody starts getting raped and trafficked and shit and then he has to go undo it for them.

It's like the film is standing over you going "See? SEE?" and expecting you to agree that yes, things would be simpler if we just let the menfolk do all the thinking and homestead protecting for us, because gosh, we just don't understand the risks out there. It's fucking embarrassing to watch a movie treat Famke motherfucking Janssen as a naive housewife with foolish notions above her station. For God's sake, the bitch nearly killed Bond with her vagina, reducing her to the role of cheerleader for a sixty year old with a pot belly is just... undignified. And hell, aside from his wife, and his daughter and Miscellaneous Scenery Prostitutes, the only other woman I can recall in the film actually literally makes him dinner in the middle of his mission.

Right before he shoots her. And he doesn't even shoot her because she deserves it, but because her husband offends him. And then he apologises - to her husband, and she's never mentioned again. This film treats every single woman in it as property of an adjacent male character, in a way that's compounded a thousand times by the fact that it's ostensibly about the evils of human trafficking. Neeson never comes across as a dad desperate to get his kid back safe - he's just a guy pissed off that some other guy has foolishly dared to take one of his Girl Things from out under his nose.

There's something incredibly ugly about the whole thought process under the surface of Taken. It's like the 93 minute deranged fantasy a meth addled abusive ex-husband might have in between fits of screaming "YOU NEED ME!" through a letterbox.

Also, everybody who isn't white and American is a chortling cartoon here to buy your slutty yankee women and defile them with their foreign penises, those animals. There is more moustache laughing in this film than you can shake one of your mighty, god-fearing American sticks at. It's not quite up there with 300 on that score - at least all the not-white guys aren't physically deformed or gay too - but it's so laughable that when I asked a middle eastern guy I know if he found it offensive, he told me he'd assumed the whole thing was a parody.

[bmack86]

Yeah, that's pretty much everything I liked about Taken.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

It was made by French people, what did you expect?

[amyzzz]

Hahaha, Bryan. Me too.

[MissingPerson]

WHAT TEENAGER ON PLANET EARTH WOULD FOLLOW U2 ON TOUR

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

I don't think anybody has ever claimed that anything Luc Besson is involved with beyond his own directorial efforts isn't a completely retarded B-movie piece of trash. His entire catalog of write/rproducer credits is basically some form of exploitation movie.

[atom heart]

I enjoyed Looper somewhat, but it's the kind of movie that is more concerned with being clever than smart, and that has a way of burrowing inside me and pissing me off over time if I keep thinking about the movie in question. It's also not even clever in the right ways; the whole conceit about having one guy at two different stages of life sharing the same space could have been utilized in a variety of interesting ways, but it basically only factors in one major development. This should have driven the entire second half of the film, because the way it actually plays out is dramatically inert - waaay too much fucking around on the farm. The voiceover is also poorly employed; I know Rian Johnson loves his noir tropes, but the logic behind what Joe says, and how it relates to the onscreen events, is thoroughly suspect (if existent in the first place). That said, I like some of Johnson's compositions and set pieces, and I enjoyed JGL and Willis' performances; honestly, I think my favorite moment of the movie is Bruce Willis popping pain pills in the alley, a throwback to the perpetually hungover Last Boy Scout / Die Hard With a Vengeance character that I can't get enough of.

Now that I type it all out, I might have actually hated Looper.

The voiceover really bothered me, because much of it ran in parallel to what was happening on screen. If it wasn't there I would have still understood what was going on. It seemed like a total misuse of noir-ish voiceover (nb: I don't know many noir films, but I think the purpose is more than just for exposition). In that sense it reminded me a lot of Inception, which was way too concerned with set up.

I actually liked that the two Joe's conflict was played out at a distance and indirectly for much of the film. I saw it as Willis Joe failing to get the proper perspective and continuing to just shoot his fucking problems down (everything Willis Joe does in the film conforms perfectly to his action-star type which I found amusing) while JGL Joe slows down, sobers up and finally sees something that's not just the inside of a night club or gang hideout.

I wasn't super satisfied with the film though, and it's been needling at me too. My favorite part of the whole thing was the frog toy communicator booty call!

[MissingPerson]

There's just something much more dispiriting about Taken than there is about its cheaper looking brethren. I've never been this annoyed by a Jason Statham film, for instance.

[xanman86]

I wasn't super satisfied with the film though, and it's been needling at me too. My favorite part of the whole thing was the frog toy communicator booty call!

Agreed.

[schoolofruckus]

The voiceover really bothered me, because much of it ran in parallel to what was happening on screen. If it wasn't there I would have still understood what was going on. It seemed like a total misuse of noir-ish voiceover (nb: I don't know many noir films, but I think the purpose is more than just for exposition). In that sense it reminded me a lot of Inception, which was way too concerned with set up.

I actually liked that the two Joe's conflict was played out at a distance and indirectly for much of the film. I saw it as Willis Joe failing to get the proper perspective and continuing to just shoot his fucking problems down (everything Willis Joe does in the film conforms perfectly to his action-star type which I found amusing) while JGL Joe slows down, sobers up and finally sees something that's not just the inside of a night club or gang hideout.

I wasn't super satisfied with the film though, and it's been needling at me too. My favorite part of the whole thing was the frog toy communicator booty call!

I agree with your first paragraph 100%. I realized this morning that this movie commits most of the same sins as Inception - the shallow use of female love interest, the absurd over-explanation of its own conventions - and is only marginally more fun.

As for the conflict between the two of them....my feelings toward that have only gotten worse since I typed that up last night. SPOILERS










The conflict between Willis Joe and Joe Joe is absolutely annihilated by the end scene of the film. We see several minor instances (such as the carving directions into his forearm) and one major one (when Cid has his big freak-out in the house and they learn instantaneously that he's the Rainmaker) in which something happens to Joe Joe and then immediately becomes part of Willis Joe's backstory/knowledge inventory. But yet, the growing connection between Joe Joe and Sara/Cid never has any impact on Willis Joe, as the movie continues to hinge upon his single-minded need to kill the boy. I feel like Johnson squandered an ENORMOUS opportunity to dig in and play with the psychological conflict within Willis - this memory of someone he loved, and the desire to kill in order to save her, conflicting with growing feelings toward his marks that he has no control over. But no - Johnson's main focus is on making something hip and slick and self-aware to the point that the movie has a black eye from winking at us so fucking hard.

I really hate to do the Randy thing where I shit all over a movie for choosing to be something other than what I think it should be. But why raise any of these ideas about a person's past haunting/helping them in the future if you're just going to end the movie with a thoughtless set piece?

[TomServo]

WHAT TEENAGER ON PLANET EARTH WOULD FOLLOW U2 ON TOUR

A 20-something year old "teenager" who runs like a newborn pony. Her attempt to act like a teenager is one of the most uncomfortable moments in film for me over the last half-decade.

[bmack86]

There's just something much more dispiriting about Taken than there is about its cheaper looking brethren. I've never been this annoyed by a Jason Statham film, for instance.

That's because Jason Statham exudes charisma and down-home charm. And makes family favorites such as Crank 2.

[schoolofruckus]

There's just something much more dispiriting about Taken than there is about its cheaper looking brethren. I've never been this annoyed by a Jason Statham film, for instance.

I don't doubt a word of what you're saying, but honestly, if you watch more than one of these programmers in a given year, I kind of think you bear some of the responsibility.

[JorgeC]

Also, everybody who isn't white and American is a chortling cartoon here to buy your slutty yankee women and defile them with their foreign penises, those animals. There is more moustache laughing in this film than you can shake one of your mighty, god-fearing American sticks at. It's not quite up there with 300 on that score - at least all the not-white guys aren't physically deformed or gay too - but it's so laughable that when I asked a middle eastern guy I know if he found it offensive, he told me he'd assumed the whole thing was a parody.

wasn't everyone in 300 gay?

[MissingPerson]

Everyone in 300 should have been gay, sort of, because the Spartan agoge system was built around institutionalised pederasty, but blah blah blah go to hell Frank Miller.

A 20-something year old "teenager" who runs like a newborn pony. Her attempt to act like a teenager is one of the most uncomfortable moments in film for me over the last half-decade.

She's supposed to be 17 or 18 right? She looks 20 something and she acts like a 9 year old. There's a whole bit when she freaks out over the pony at her birthday party. Super weird.

[MissingPerson]

I don't doubt a word of what you're saying, but honestly, if you watch more than one of these programmers in a given year, I kind of think you bear some of the responsibility.

I do like action movies, I love them, I just wish this stuff wasn't part and parcel of the genre. Lately it feels like there's a weird undercurrent of... I don't know, a kind of conscious or unconscious macho ego backlash, and Taken just brings it to an extreme.

But like I said, in this case, my flatmate made me watch it. I take no responsibility, I was a conscientious objector.

[schoolofruckus]

You were complicit in its broadcast in your home. Silence is violence.

[xanman86]

I wish Amazon wasn't monopolizing the market with the Universal Classic Monsters Blu Ray set that came out this week. They are pricing it at $111! I'd love to see all of these this month but not at that price. I tried checking a few Best Buys, Costco and Target and no one got a copy in.

http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Clas...ersal+monsters

[PotVsKtl]

Ridley Scott is a dick.

[AlecEiffel]

I wish Amazon wasn't monopolizing the market with the Universal Classic Monsters Blu Ray set that came out this week. They are pricing it at $111! I'd love to see all of these this month but not at that price. I tried checking a few Best Buys, Costco and Target and no one got a copy in.

http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Clas...ersal+monsters

It's really not that much if you break it down, It's only about $12 a movie if you count the Spanish version of Dracula. Plus all the stores are carrying it online (and charging more than Amazon), I think it's just so expensive for what has become a kind of a niche set that it probably wasn't really viable for them to carry it in store. I've only watched Dracula from the set so far and it looks amazing.

Oh, and also, I probably should have started the post with this info, but the UK set is region free (the same exact discs, I believe) and you can get it for $55 including shipping
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Cl...SO/ref=lh_ni_t

[xanman86]

It's really not that much if you break it down, It's only about $12 a movie if you count the Spanish version of Dracula. Plus all the stores are carrying it online (and charging more than Amazon), I think it's just so expensive for what has become a kind of a niche set that it probably wasn't really viable for them to carry it in store. I've only watched Dracula from the set so far and it looks amazing.

Oh, and also, I probably should have started the post with this info, but the UK set is region free (the same exact discs, I believe) and you can get it for $55 including shipping
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Cl...SO/ref=lh_ni_t

Yeah I just wish it came out in all the stores first week at a sale price like $60-75ish then went back to where it is now.

[schoolofruckus]

Fuck Universal's horror box - THIS is the Blu-Ray release to care about.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

NO.

[Dogvolta]

Anyone know where I can buy a wall mounted projection screen? Frys carries them but they only sell 4:3 aspect ration, I need widescreen. I know I can order online, but I kind of need it by this weekend

[bmack86]

Baffuaro66

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

Anyone know where I can buy a wall mounted projection screen? Frys carries them but they only sell 4:3 aspect ration, I need widescreen. I know I can order online, but I kind of need it by this weekend

Costco is a really good place to look!

[Dogvolta]

Costco is a really good place to look!

Thanks, and yeah I checked there last night. They don't. I believe I have exhausted all of my resources. The only place that seems to carry them is Office Depot and Frys. Unfortunately both of those places, as I mentioned, are 4:3...I just figured I'd throw the question out here with the hopes of someone randomly knowing a place to purchase quality screens. It seems online ordering/shipping is the only way to go. Sucks

[AlecEiffel]

Fuck Universal's horror box - THIS is the Blu-Ray release to care about.

This is bound to get a domestic release eventually. I'm tempted to pick it up anyway, gotta make sure the subtitles aren't burnt in first.

[atom heart]

I agree with your first paragraph 100%. I realized this morning that this movie commits most of the same sins as Inception - the shallow use of female love interest, the absurd over-explanation of its own conventions - and is only marginally more fun.

As for the conflict between the two of them....my feelings toward that have only gotten worse since I typed that up last night.

[SPOILERS REDACTED]

I really hate to do the Randy thing where I shit all over a movie for choosing to be something other than what I think it should be. But why raise any of these ideas about a person's past haunting/helping them in the future if you're just going to end the movie with a thoughtless set piece?

I actually thought about this while watching the movie, that idea of connecting them wasn't fully realized. When the movie finally brought them together again I thought they would have some sort of simultaneous epiphany and resolve the conflict. As it is we just got something weirdly Heroes-y. Also there's a weird tension in the film's message: can people escape what kind of people they are?



SPOILERS I GUESS

Joe Joe (thanks for that one) seems to thinks HE can't, but that the kid can. I stopped thinking about the connection problem but this one stuck with me.