No time for the full reviews I usually do so I’ll just give my general impressions of these two flicks. Let’s start with Outlander. The only reason I know it exists is first, because when I was looking at what movies were coming out for the week, I saw it there and had no clue what it was. So I clicked it, did my research, and the plot was descent but most people were treating it as a joke so I didn’t dig any further. Then the torrent came out, the first of which was a bad copy. Then the proper came out. So I decided to dig a little deeper cuz the comments were changing from joke to serious. And guess what? This is a pretty good movie.

I’m learning that I can’t take too many comments from sites all that seriously cuz a lot of those people don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about, that’s why I revisited the movie. You gotta weed out the good stuff from the bad. People were talking shit without even seeing the movie. Then when people that actually saw it started commenting, it was mostly positive stuff and my assessment won’t be any different. Plotwise, it’s nothing new. It’s the typical ‘hero’s journey’ tale. Good guy gets the girl and wins as always. Nothing new.

But execution is a tad different. An alien in viking times helping them defeat a space monster sounds like something you’d see on the Sci-Fi Channel but this is far from the cheesy spectacles we’re all accustomed to from that network. There were a few questions and complaints about the cg quality in this movie. Only one scene has questionable quality where a guy gets smushed through a wall 22mins and 57secs in. Remember that clip from The Soup years ago where that monster snatched that lady through the door, bent her backwards, and broke her in half in the process? It’s kinda like that. Other than that, no complaints in this regard. Everything else was acceptable and high quality.

This movie can be compared to countless others; like Beowulf, Braveheart, 13th Warrior, and on and on. Like I said before, nothing new. But that doesn’t mean it’s bad and doesn’t stand on its own feet. A new creature called a Moorwen is introduced to us all. Jim Caviezel plays the protagonist whose ship crash lands on Earth. Just so happens one of those creatures is on board too. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out what happens. My only complaint is the predictability towards the end. The movie starts a bit slow, building up the characters which isn’t a bad thing. Things really pick up at the end of Act II cuz you think the movie is going to end but they throw in a little surprise that you don’t expect. I could spill the beans about it here but I won’t ruin anything. Let’s just say that if you’ve seen Cloverfield, you know the big monster wasn’t alone in its mayhem.

Would I recommend this movie? Yes. I give it 7.5 out of 10 stars. I’d find a quality dollar movie and pay the small fee to enjoy it properly because it is entertaining and provides a good level of escapism. The plot may seem dumb, it may start a bit slow, it is predictable towards the end, but the most important aspect is that it does entertain. This isn’t a low quality production either. The production standards are on par with any other big budget flick (minus that one scene) with cg elements.

From my research, the budget was $47 mil which is about what I’d expect for what’s on the screen. What gets me is why The Weinstein Company hasn’t promoted this at all. Never once did I see a trailer on tv. I only found out about it by a fluke. Luckily I wasn’t disappointed. It doesn’t look like this is gonna break any box office records or even recoup its costs and that’s a damn shame. If they put some effort into the marketing, this movie could be a success and deserves to be. Fucking thing doesn’t even have an official site. I really hope they’re doing a soft opening to test audience reaction before going wide with it. If the few theaters it’s opened in is all they plan on doing, then I’d say go see it now while you can. It’s worth it. Even though I think it was an open ending, I don’t see a sequel or prequel unless this movie makes some bread. The prequel is obvious in the flashbacks. The thing could still be alive and mate with Earth animals for a sequel. That’s just my ideas anyway.

Then there’s Taken. I actually did see a trailer for this and was so impressed that I was gonna pay for it (dl’ed it instead out of curiousity). I did my research and found out that this has already been released a year ago all over the world except the US. We’re just now getting it. And that first week’s box office is well deserved cuz it really is a good action movie with a degree of intelligence. I won’t compare it to any Bourne movies like most people. The fight scenes are similar but that’s about it. When it comes to the plot, it’s more like that Harrison Ford movie Firewall. Kidnapped family member, dad goes on a rampage to save them. The prob with Firewall is that Harrison’s character plows through every obstacle, even winning fights against people half his age…and he’s an office worker, not a soldier or anything remotely close to that.

Liam Neeson’s character, on the other hand, is a “preventer.” It’s established that he can fight and that’s what makes him believable. It’s also established that he just wants to make up for lost time with his daughter and they do a good job of that. I actually like the way the movie ends and wouldn’t mind a prequel/sequel if box office warrants it. I give it 8 out of 10 stars. I knock off 2 points cuz of two scenes. From start to finish, the movie is very engaging, never a moment where you’re not totally engrossed in the flick. That is, until Neeson rescues a girl from a construction site (I won’t get into the details of it) and a car chase ensues. The problem here is that they were shooting at him at practically point blank range and neither him or the girl ever took a single bullet. Then towards the end of the movie when he gets captured and they’re about to kill him, all looks lost but miraculously he finds a way to save himself. Both situations are just totally unbelievable and took away from the enjoyment of the movie for me. But that’s just me.

Other than those two, everything is on point. No complaints. Really good action movie. I don’t ever recall seeing Neeson in any movie to be honest so this was a good introduction. Like when I say Kevin Costner for the first time in Mr. Brooks. I’d say pay full price for this movie cuz it’s totally worth it. As the movie plays along, you’ll get the impression that he’s Superman cuz of those two scenes but if you can get past them like I had to force myself to, you will love this movie. Well paced, good characterizations, good underlying theme, good fight choreography. In other words, a damn good movie.