Taken (2008, U.S.)

Taken is one of the best suspense movies I've seen in a long, long time. I saw it because Meghan had been wanting to see it, and I rarely turn down a movie invite. In this case, I'm glad I didn't.

On the one hand, the plot of this film was ridiculously unbelievable. But at the same time, it was chillingly believable. A teenager and her friend go to Paris together, only to immediately fall for a cute French guy who is the tip of a human trafficking iceberg. Her ex-military father is determined to hunt them down and save his daughter before it's too late.

The action is great. Even the violence falls perfectly between gory and stylized, which is the only kind of violence I really like in a film. Unlike the last suspense film I saw (The International), how Neeson's character figures out the clues to get from point A to point B makes sense. The acting is phenomenal. The filmmakers also did an exceptional job with making the characters truly realistic, even down to a very convincing father-daughter relationship between Neeson and Grace. Really, this relationship was the backbone of the entire film.

I'm not one to watch action movies over and over again, but I could definitely see giving this one a second viewing. It was incredible.

Rating: 4.0

He's Just Not That Into You (2009, U.S.)

It was the weekend, I was bored, I wanted to see a movie, and there was very little playing. That is how I ended up seeing this travesty of a movie.

I liked it so little that I don't think I can even bother scrounging up any constructive comments. The ensemble cast was pretty great, but the characters they played were terrible—shallow, irritating, self-centered, and stupidly causing themselves trouble that would be easily avoided.

In fact, I'm not really sure why I stayed to the end of this one. Perhaps I hoped it would redeem itself. It didn't.

Rating: 1.5