Taken

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luc_Besson

Just got home from catching a matinee of Taken. Good action scenes, no doubt. Asses upon asses are kicked in a multitude of interesting, exciting ways (well, Liam Neeson mostly just hits people in the throat - but in a multitude of interesting, exciting ways). But this film just left me feeling queasy.

Why? Because Liam Neeson plays a retired American solider, who hurts, maims, and kills Frenchmen, Albanians, and Arabs, both the innocent and the guilty alike, with a righteous, remorseless anger that would make George W. Bush blush, in order to rescue his shallow, vapid, spoiled, rich daughter, who has shitty taste in music (U2? U2? Of course, if a shallow, vapid, spoiled rich girl would backpack across Europe to follow a band, it would be U2 - 'cause, you know, Bono says important things about stuff), so said shallow, vapid, spoiled, rich girl can come home to America...to become a pop star?

And you know what? Judging from the box office returns, people are eating this shit up with greasy, buttery popcorn fingers.

Shame on you, Luc Besson. I expected better from you than a movie like this, and I don't even expect that much from you. Not much at all.

No, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go watch Wasabi again.