Tooken

For a spoof movie there should be little to expect. Spoofing the Taken series is something which surprisingly took a while to be made (Tooken was released after Taken 3- so they waited until the Taken franchise was complete). With the instant success of the first Taken film, one would have expected a spoof film have been made immediately.

This film is quite short in runtime which benefits it as they ensure it doesn't drag on. Some clever gags, the obvious and expected over the top humor, a lot more gross humor (dick jokes) than expected, cheap one liners and innuendoes.

The lead actor impersonating Liam Neeson does a great job, the wife has a resemblance to the Taken wife of Lenore and for some reason the daughter is more overly specialized here.

Don't expect anything great but in comparison to other spoof films such as Epic Movie or Disaster Movie, Tooken is a clear step above. Reason being, there is a consistency in plot and it doesn't seem like a bunch of random scenes sketched together. It has its moments, some things work while some fall flat. Which was expected.

I love to see all the negative reviews of people expecting a big budget movie.

Go into it expecting a low budget spoof, and this movie is awesome.

It's very creative, jokes are funny and not just low-class humor, and the story is pretty good for a spoof movie.

On a side note, voting 1 star because you dislike a movie (or 10 because you like it) only serves to skew the results.

It shows that IMDb is now ruled by fan boys and haters instead of actual reviewers.

This movie was much better than any recent spoofs. 6/10.

Lee Turgidsen is OK. Not very funny, but he is spoofing Liam Neeson, so it works. Reno Wilson is by far a lot more entertaining when he is in a scene.

Lauren Stamile plays the ex-wife of Turgidsen and she is also fun. She is in a relationship with Reno.

The daughter does not actually get kidnapped by the Albanians. The story is about a pet store that sells dogs with bombs in their butts. Sounds dumber when you watch it on TV.

The Albanians are probably the funniest actors in this movie. This is not a bad movie, but if you are sleepy (late night) watching it, the slow pace and timing of the jokes works better.

We didn't need a sequel to "Taken". It was a fine movie on it's own and one that cemented Liam Neeson as a bona fide action movie star. And since it made money we got a couple sequels that weren't necessary and they weren't as good. But you know what we really didn't need? A spoof of said movie.

Where do I even begin? They literally reference the classic phone call scene at the start of the movie. But in context it doesn't even make any sense. Our hero is in the delivery room, his wife is giving birth and the doctor passes out. Just like that. I guess this is supposed to be funny? And our hero is now supposed to delver the baby. So he threatens it, by giving a truncated version of the phone call speech. Is this supposed to be comedy?

As the story goes on he's lousy when it comes to things being taken, or maybe tooken in this case, around him from his ex-wife leaving to his daughter's virginity. And then, for no reason, gangsters from Albania decide to stick explosives into puppies. Why? I guess they're supposed to be evil or something? And since his puppy has also been explosiveized, he's pushed too far and does something about it.

There was no reason for this movie to be made. Absolutely none. It's not funny. It's not well done. And it totally bombed at the box office showing that parody and spoofs really need a deft hand to make them work.

Bryan Millers is a former CIA agent, now a security guard at a pet store. He still is in love with is ex-wife Lenore who by now is involved with a black former porn actor. Bryan has a teenage daughter who's eager to lose her virginity, something he's not about to let happen. He's also interested in trying the latest ED medication, even though as far as we can tell, he doesn't have a woman.

One night at work he sees a bunch of Albanians loading explosives. He confronts them and next day he walks up to the pet store HQ to again confront the gangsters. We learn that behind them is some sinister figure.

It takes a while but eventually Bryan, his mom--also a former CIA agent, and Lenore get "taken". We learn more about the sinister boss and what he's up to. In the meantime the daughter and Lenore's guy will have to rescue them and Bryan will have to confront the bad guy.

The Taken franchise, and for that matter all Liam Neeson movies, are ideal material for a parody. And initially it looks like Tooken will to just that. This Bryan endlessly brags about his special skills but just like the other Bryan rarely displays the alleged skills. For some reason, Mills' lame friends don't make an appearance here.

Unfortunately, Tooken instead of being a "serious" parody quickly descends into adolescent territory with countless gross moments, that wouldn't be funny even to teenagers. I counted four instances that made me chuckle but there wasn't any particularly funny scene or line. Tooken could have ridiculed the over the top violence, Mills' absurd obsession with his ex, the annoying daughter. But it doesn't. It comes across more like a really poor comedy that was quickly adapted into a Taken scenario.