And Soon The Darkness (2010)

As dreary as 1970’s And Soon The Darkness’ may have been, one thing you cannot escape is the ability it has to haunt you. It’s a familiar tale of tourists on holiday becoming separated, one of which ends up falling foul of something unpleasant. As human beings missing person’s cases trouble us, so the movie did play heavily on the minds of anyone who saw it. Penned by the creator of the Professionals Brian Clemens, and the inventor of Doctor Who’s Daleks, Terry Nation. Despite its emotional draw, and its uncharacteristic edginess for a British movie of that time, the film felt incredibly hollow, lots of pacing about and lack of substance, so it seems that the movie was perfect for a remake.

Continuing their stream of remakes Anchor Bay Films recent movie takes the story from the French countryside (which back in 1970 seemed alien and a million miles away) to Argentina. The story follows Stephanie (Amber Heard) and Ellie (Odette Yustman) as American tourists preparing to end their cycling holiday in the country. Just one more night separates them from returning to normality, but a night on the town and a rather over enthusiastic Romeo causes them to oversleep and miss their connecting bus. After an argument between the two of them breaks out over sunbathing, Stephanie heads off leaving her friend in a remote location, but when Ellie fails to catch up Stephanie returns to where she last saw Ellie only to find she is gone. While the local police try to convince her that Ellie has just gone off with others for the day, Stephanie is adamant something has happened to Ellie, and the hundreds of missing person’s posters around the town do little to dispel her concerns.

This 2010 remake starts with a lot of promise, there is much more bonding between the two girls, the relationship far stronger than in the original. Add to this we have a much more adapted story, you’re allowed to like Ellie before she disappears, or not if you’re that way inclined. For at least half the movie this feels like a far better product, so much more finished than the original but sadly that is where the improvements end.

No sooner has Ellie disappeared and you can feel the weaknesses’ in the movie. One minute you have this cast iron strong storyline, the next you get all these loose ends that are never ever summed up. Elation turns to disappointment as the movie just continues down a darker path than the previous movie. Whole new plotlines are created but never explained, and as the movie draws to a close you have considerably more questions than answers.

Amber Heard does a reasonable job of keeping most of her clothes on for once, and as leading actress (and Executive Producer) she does a good job of making a like-able heroin, she literally fills the boots of the part she is portraying, and that in any movie is not always an easy task. Yustman also performs well, realistic in her behaviour, endearing as the movies principal victim. The final addition of the principal cast is Karl Urban who acts well, with a hollow character that is up until his final appearance in the movie, when acting school skills seem to have failed him. Indeed of all the cast there are no missing links, these are all good performers, and as a result the movies weaknesses’ certainly cannot land at the door of any of the performers. The direction is also very capable indeed.

No the fault is in the scripting, and that point alone; having not been privy to the original treatment for the 1970 movie, and to be fair not that enamoured by either film to hunt it out, I cannot tell you if either version of the movie is more to the authors vision. What I can say is that a reasonable attempt at correcting failure is dashed here, so many cliché additions, so many open scenarios just waiting for a story to fill them.

After the end of a lengthy action sequence you feel relived, relived that the story is over and that you can at last move on to something far more promising.

While a better version of the movie as a whole, the story still lacks much and on this basis I’d actually rate it lower than the original, because at least the original feature was consistent.

Taken

All the way back at the end of the 1980’s someone looked at the 35 year old Liam Neeson and decided that he would make the most excellent action hero. Next Of Kin, Darkman, Suspect, The Dead Pool, and Under Suspicion all went in the right direction to shape this career. But then it all went wrong, Neeson started appearing in romantic movies, comedies, and political dramas; the hard man image lost now allowing Neeson to progress as a credible actor. You could argue that this was a good idea, Schindlers List, Rob Roy, Michael Collins and Kinsey all gave the actor some considerable acclaim. Strangely though as the actor moves slowly towards his 60^th birthday someone has decided to return the action mantle to Neeson, and prepare for a bucket load of action blockbusters featuring the actor. Leading the way to towards this new re-incarnation of the actor is Taken a gripping action thriller with more guns and fights than a James Bond movie could ever aspire to.

Taken begins rather preposterously with the 17^th birthday of Kim (Maggie Grace near on ten years above that age), long distant father Bryan (Neeson) arrives to the party clutching a karaoke machine to help his daughter practise her love of singing. In the ultimate dick swinging contest however, Step Father Stuart (Xander Berkeley) produces a prize stallion as the birthday gift from him to Kim. With poor finances in place Bryan can only look on, while ex wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) looks cheerfully on at this brazen show of one upmanship. Bryan is soon given the chance to award his daughter the ultimate gift however, permission to travel to France for a summer of historical study. While he does not want to allow Kim this pleasure, he knows in the pit of his stomach that this will win him back into favour. Bryan takes no chances however giving Kim a state of the art phone to stay in touch with him. Arriving in France, Kim soon finds herself in trouble and the only person she can turn to is her father. As a group of armed men burst into the apartment she shares with her friend, Bryan can only give his daughter the best advice he can to get her help, but painfully he must listen on the telephone thousands of miles away as his daughter is taken.

Abducted, drugged and sold into the sex trade, nobody could have realised that Kim’s father was an ex secret agent, heading for France he is in no mood for discussion.

I’m absolutely mortified that I chose to delay watching Taken by nearly a month after receiving a preview disc, I had not heard of Taken and simply assumed this was some sort of low budget thriller that was not going anywhere. I could not have been more wrong, although for the most part in English this is really a major French movie, with in incredibly big budget.

There are so many thrillers out there that go nowhere, and have no real impact on your emotions. Taken pulls on your heartstrings from the offset, watching a relationship ruined through rivalry; then following with the abduction of a child, surely every parent’s worst fear. Both aspects are given such detail, making the story win you over from the offset. The fact that Kim has been taken to sell into the sex trade makes things worse, there are no pink soft shades in this movie, and it’s harsh, gritty and brutal. As the movie proceeds things get more and more uncomfortable as you are shown the lives of the girls sold in this very way.

Having emotionally won you over, and endeared you to a character that in fairness due to the casting of Neeson in that role a lot of people would find it difficult to warm too; the next of the movies offerings to address is the action. Looking at Taken you cannot help but realise that Neeson was sadly overlooked at some point as a suitable casting for James Bond. Carrying out many of the movies stunts himself, the fight sequences are incredibly well choreographed, think Bruce Willis in Die Hard with an Irish accent. While being the ultimate fighting warrior in the movie, with the ability to snap bones with a single slam; Neeson’s character is very much aware of his own mortality. Understanding that the character as well as the actor is getting on there are no large jumps in chase sequences, it’s all Neeson can do to give chase to be honest, when it comes to jumps the character of Bryan sums up the probability of failure and thinks “Sod it” before moving on to the next best option. Add to this that Bryan is not the usual bullet swallowing action hero, one shot and he knows he is “in a ditch”, instead manoeuvring his way through the movie with nothing more than a sore head and a few flesh wounds.

Where the movie falls down in my opinion is in the casting of the lovely Maggie Grace; best known as the sister from hell Shannon in the series Lost, the casting of the actress to play a seventeen year old is rather like me a man in my late thirties being cast as a schoolboy, and while I’m sure I’d look just grand in short trousers cap and school tie, it would not be what the viewing public would want to see. I can sort of understand the casting, because you need to find someone who after various drug related incidents would look older than their years, and by the end you forget her age; but at the beginning you cannot help but think “What!”

As Taken continues the storyline becomes more and more compelling, zig zagging around between tense storytelling, action, and very real horror; with some wonderful location shooting around Paris, and some great minor roles including an appearance from “Naughty Girl” Holly Valance, Taken movies into first place in my list of thrillers movies of 2008.

Taken is in UK cinemas from September 26^th.