Tooken (2015)

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Doesn't deserve such a low rating score - I've seen a lot lot worse ranked a lot lot higher.Tooken is obviously a spoof based in Taken, and it's pretty funny in places - some places more than others for sure; but that's the nature of the genre (or so I believe). It's certainly one of those 'switch your brain off' before watching sort of movies; but it's definitely not worth the negative criticism it's received in many of the reviews.It has that spoof movie feel to it - admittedly, not on the same level or power as the likes of Airplane etc... but it's pretty watchable once you realise it is what it is.Being a fan of the original Taken, and totally hating Taken 2 (like many others); I liked a few of the links relating to them in this movie. If anything, there was maybe a slight overuse of the key telephone conversation from the original, but there you have it.All-in-all Tooken is worth a watch if you've some time to kill. Yes, it's littered with mistakes; no, it doesn't have huge dramatic effects; but I found it OK to watch - and still enjoyed it better than the original Taken 2.Overall: 6.7/10.

As someone who grew up with the Airplane! and Naked Gun series, I have a soft-spot for these types of spoofs. At some point the Zuckers gave way to the Wayans and all subtlety in humor was erased in favor of shock-value and "in your face" crudeness. While "Tooken" certainly has bits and scenes you wouldn't want to watch around children, it also has very good writing and performances to give something for everyone. Lee Torgleson should be the next action hero (I hope he gets a lot of work after this) and Margaret Cho gets to do some character acting away from her usual stage persona. All in all, I'd say for a good night in of laughs with friends, Tooken is a good choice.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning In this send up of the Taken films, the middle aged Irish hero has come down in the world from working for the CIA, and everything around him, from his ex-wife to his daughter's cherry, seems to be going away. But when some Albanian gangsters hatch a plot to put explosive devices in the local puppies, including his beloved own, he's pushed too far and swears to bring them down.If I had been a bigger fan of the Taken franchise this ultra low budget misfire is sending up, I might have been able to relate to it a little better, and enjoyed it maybe a little more, but that's a big gamble. It begs the retrospective question, if the script had such potential in the first place, why a bigger studio didn't snap it up? It pulls out all the gross out, juvenile stops it can, but I've never seen anything so unfunny in quite a while, with an incoherent, messy plot that makes it even harder to endure. If the script had been better written, and some better finance had been behind it, it could have been on to something, but as it is, it's just hopeless. Even the title is pants. *

Let me start by saying that I started hating spoof movies around the time epic movie and date movie came out. In fact the creators of those movies are making a spoof of Taken as well. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3749816/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_1 It will likely be terrible but this movie is just a fun ride. There isn't as much toilet humor or gross out humor as I expected. Has some really funny jokes and creative ideas. Actually has a half decent budget and isn't filmed over a long weekend like a Seltzer spoof. This movie was already down voted before it even came out of the studio. I really don't think that's fair since everyone who gave this a 1 probably never even seen it. But then again that's IMDb for you. All in all I didn't bust a gut laughing, but at least I didn't pop a vessel in my head. Like one would do during an Aaron Seltzer movie.