Category: Entertainment

Review: Taken

Bit of a random choice of film, this. I’d not heard of Taken before I checked out the cinema times but the trailer looked pretty good. And, I’m rather glad we opted for it.

It’s a by-the-numbers thriller. You kind of know how it’s going to go from the start right to the end, but along the way it’s got some great set pieces and superb action. Ex-CIA agent separated from wife is talked into allowing his daughter to go to Paris. He warns her about how bad the world is. She insists it’s all fine. She gets kidnapped. Angry daddy flies to France and goes on the rampage.

Liam Neeson shows why he was considered for Bond before they picked Pierce Brosnan by being somewhat pretty kick-ass. Actually, I think he’s got a touch of the Daniel Craig about him. As Leah put it, “a bit of rough”. At 56, he’s a bit over the hill for playing Bond, but he does look the part in smart clothes and you certainly wouldn’t mess with him if you kidnapped his daughter.

Without a doubt there are a few plot-holes – like why does nobody question a “French” policeman’s Irish American accent? But the pace is generally so fast that by the time you start worrying about this, Neeson’s breaking someone else’s arm.

A few of the reviews I’ve scanned are scathing about the film’s so-called “racism”, stereotyping Eastern Europeans as gangsters and Arabs as rich kiddy-fiddlers. Well, so bloody what? Someone has to be the bad guy. Shall we burn all the old Bond novels because Blofeld was obviously Eastern European and therefore that’s an insult? True fact – Albanians can be gangsters the same way the Italians can. Arabs can treat women like **** the same way a drunk in a Glasgow council flat can. Deal with it – it’s a film.

As with many French-set and French-directed films, the action sequences are pretty impressive. Car chases, frenetic fight scenes and the like. If you liked The Transporter and Ronin, you’ll probably go for this. It’s not as over the top as the former, or as deep as the latter but it’s fun in its own right.

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Immobilise

I can’t remember if I’ve posted about this site before, but it’s been updated and revamped so it deserves a mention regardless.

Immobilise (Immobilize.net in the U.S.) is an initiative to help track down all your stuff if it gets nicked. You enter the make, model, serial number and upload photos. If you get robbed, you can use it to block your phone and also inform the police and second hand trade of the items stolen.

It is free, and it’s recommended by everyone from the Home Office to the BBC. Yeah, it’ll take you a while to whack everything in, but think how much easier it’ll make things than having to dig out all the information if your stuff gets pinched. They even tell you how to find serial numbers on many common models of electronic goods.

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Backlash by Rod Duncan

I don’t often do book reviews, but I really want to recommend this one. I picked up the “sequel” in New Zealand a couple of years ago and loved it, so I was pleasantly surprised to find this in a bookshop in Bali.

Backlash is Rod Duncan‘s first novel and it’s part of a very loosely connected trilogy set in Leicester. The location is really the only thing that connects them so they can be read in any order.

It’s a crime novel set against a backdrop of racial tension with a healthy dose of corruption and personal drama thrown in. The pace is tight, it’s very easy to read and the plot wraps up well at the end.

I’m even impressed by the computery bits – somewhere so many authors fall down. It’s always uncomfortable when a novel (or film) includes details of a subject you know well, and you spend time cursing the author’s over-simplification of just plain inaccuracy. Duncan hasn’t made this mistake and the IT side of it gets my tick of approval.

The other reason I’m writing this review is simply that Duncan seems like a great guy. He’s not a massive author with a million sales of every book (yet!) but this means that he seems to answer every email and blog comment personally. He’s enthusiastic about his choice of career and in helping anyone else follow in his footsteps.

Oh, he’s also dyslexic. Which I suppose makes writing a whole novel that bit more of a challenge for him than for a non-sufferer.

I have to say I did prefer Breakbeat, the next novel in the series, but I assume this just means that every successive book will just be better than the last.

Now I just need to keep my eyes open for his other stuff.

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Review: Deception

Ewan McGregor at the Stormbreaker London premiere.

Saw this in Kuala Lumpur today, so mildly censored as ever. A bit strange as quite a few “****”s were left in while others were dubbed. Also at least one really obvious cut around 1/2 way through. Silly censors.

Anyhoo, it’s a half-decent thriller with about four changes in pace. Ewan McGregor plays a geeky accountant and Hugh Jackman‘s a chartismatic ladies’ man who takes him under his wing and introduces him to an exclusive sex club. Which I would like membership of, please, if anyone’s listening.

Of course, there are ulterior motives involved and soon enough McGregor finds himself in trouble with a sword hanging over his head. Oh, there’s some chick in the film as well but I have no idea who she is.

The plot unwinds quite well, and at a reasonable pace. I also quite liked the way certain clues were given at just the right time. I managed to put things together around the same time as the central characters, which held my interest.

The ending, however, is a bit weak. I don’t want to give anything away so I’ll word this carefully! The violent part has been done a million times in other films, so came as no surprise. The police officer’s discovery right at the close created a new thread instead of tying one up. And the suitcases… why leave them?

But I enjoyed it. A clever premise even if the whole thing degenerates into play-by-numbers towards the end.

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