Taken 2-Disc Extended Cut – Blu-Ray Review

I love revenge flicks.  So when I saw the trailer for Taken I got extremely excited.  Liam Neeson’s awesome monologue got my cinematic juices flowing.  It was about time someone made a straight up revenge flick, and the fact that the filmmakers were smart enough to cast Neeson told me they knew what they were doing.  

Neeson plays Bryan Mills, a spy that has decided to retire in order to spend more time with his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace).  Only he’s pretty rusty when it comes to being a father.  His daughter swindles him into letting her follow the rock band U2 around on their European tour.  And as luck would have it, she gets kidnapped on her first day in Paris by dirtbags that sell women into the slave trade.  This really pisses Mills off, causing him to seek out his daughter’s kidnappers with the sole intention of killing them and getting his daughter back.  

Basically Neeson travels around Paris kicking ass, and gathering information that will lead him to his daughter and her doomed kidnappers.  There is nothing that can stop Neeson from reaching his goal.  The closer he gets to his daughter, the more the bodies pile up.  I love watching Neeson kill people!  I can’t say enough good things about Liam Neeson’s performance in this flick.  He was perfectly cast for this role.  His voice is calm and his actions calculated.  He’s the kind of bad-ass that geeks like me dreamed of being when we were young martial arts fans (to bad you can’t major in ass kickery in college).  

I was impressed with the way the action sequences were shot, and loved the fact that most of the bad guys were just disposable morons that I didn’t give two shits about.  The directing was tight and action master Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen’s script was pretty tight as well.  There were a few moments that I wish would have been fleshed out a little more, but overall this was a solid action flick that took no prisoners.  Taken was positively a killer film.  

Disc 1

Both the Theatrical Version and Extended Cut of the flick are included in this collection and both are great, but the extended cut wasn’t all that extended.  

Audio Commentary: The disc includes extended cut commentary from Director Pierre Morel, Cinematographer Michel Abramowicz and Car Stunt Supervisor Michel Julienne.  There is also a track with Co-Screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen that I really enjoyed.  Overall the commentary on this disc is top notch and should appease fans of the flick.  

Le Making-of: Is a short featurette that is pretty standard DVD extras material.  It combines cast and crew interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and clips from the film.  

Avant Premiere: I enjoyed this short featurette that shows the film’s premiere and includes cast and crew interviews.  I wish more films would include a feature like this one.  

Inside Action: Side-by-Side Scene Comparisons: I love features like this one!  It shows raw footage and then compares it with the final effects shot.  Really cool stuff.

Black Ops Field Manual: This is a neat feature that allows a picture-in-picture window to be viewed, which includes information like; body count, time, distance traveled, and more!  A really neat feature to watch while having a few beers with your friends,  

Disc 2

Digital Copy of Taken: This is a feature that I am growing increasingly tired of.  If you enjoy watching movies on your computer then disc two offers a digital version that you can watch from on your desktop or laptop.

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