Taken (Extended Cut)

Often bone-crackingly, flesh-rippingly violent, but no amount of excess detracts from this junky thriller's jagged appeal.

Overall this is a good, not great, release of a film that has made itself an enormous amount of money and earned its place among our generation's other semi-superheroic thrillers.

The cinematic equivalent of that guy in high school who was capable of making good grades but always coasted through with Cs.

The audience is stuck with a film that is way nicer than it should be. Sure it makes the subject matter easier to take, but in the long run it really limits the film's overall effectiveness