Taken: This Cool Movie is Haji Approved

Went and saw Taken this afternoon. I guess I was a little surprised that it was still in the theaters, but it point of fact, there isn't much else out there. Already saw "Watchmen". Other than being a little taken aback by the nudity in a movie about superheroes, it was very "meh" to me. Taken, however, had something that seems to be a bit of a trend these days: the somewhat older guy gettin' mad and kickin' teeth in. Taken is one of those movies, except for one thing that Hollywood got wrong. Again.

One thing that older heroes know that younger ones don't is that they understand support and networking. Check out "Burn Notice". The 40 something former spy relies on people that he sometimes doesn't like because he knows he needs help. Older dudes have spent a lot of years, even just by virtue of being on the planet for a longer amount of time, developing a network of contacts in a whole range of different areas. The father in Taken, a CIA "preventer" (probably in the paramilitary branch; the dudes that took down the Taliban with 5th SFG), had been places and done things that developed a specific set of useful and deadly skills over his career. He was a skilled man among skilled men. And therin lies Hollywood's mistake. Again.

Without giving too much away, the father in the movie goes to France to find the daughter that was kidknapped there. The thing is, he did it alone. This guy had a group of experienced bad asses that he'd worked with for years. He called one and got a modo intel dump. He made contact in Europe with a couple guys that were still in the biz but were behind desks now. And yet, he went about the investigation and splitting of wigs by himself.

This is a problem for me. I have several very good friends with kids. If somebody were stupid enough to take my friend's kids, all I'd need was a call or a text. "Meet me here, bring heat". I'd be out the door as soon as it took to grab the gear bag. I pray a day like that never comes, but what must be must be. Don't mess with my friends and their kids.

I guess the reason the movie was made the way it was that if they'd done it the way it should have gone, dude would have rolled up in Paris with a couple Para branch dudes and a couple recently retired CAG guys, and the movie would have been over in just about an hour and 15 minutes; 48 hours in real time. The flick they made was supposed to be over the course of 96 hours. The old dude was sandbaggin', I guess.