If it lacks some of the panache and grindhouse appeal of previous installments, it also avoids the xenophobia and general mean-spiritedness. Point being, we know what we’re getting with this particular genre, and The Marksman, starring Neeson as a Texas rancher protecting a young boy from drug cartels, is a perfectly adequate exercise in providing it. But we all know what “ Taken movie” implies at this point, right? Almost every Liam Neeson vehicle made since 2008 has been a spiritual sequel to Taken if not a literal one, starring Neeson as a pissed off old guy with a gun and a particular set of skills, unleashed to avenge his daughter/wife/nice vegetable patch ( “Killing you isn’t going to bring my goddamned eggplant back.”). Neeson’s latest vehicle, opening in select theaters and as a VOD rental this weekend, isn’t technically a Taken sequel, nor does it come from any of the original creative team from Taken. ![]() ![]() ![]() Which is… probably a good thing? Certainly a good thing for the world, if not for art, assuming Taken movies qualify as art.Īdmittedly, I use the term “ Taken movie” somewhat loosely. If Liam Neeson’s latest Taken adventure is any indication, the public’s appetite for vengeful mayhem and vigilantism may have dimmed somewhat of late.
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