And yet, despite being so very French, it was an English-language movie about an American hero that did most of its business here in the States. Huh. Okay, so it was a French production. But that doesn't make it any less ick to moi. What's so similar? Unless I'm missing something, the Taken abduction was a random sex-ring kidnapping by a group of ethnic "others". The Stolen abduction is a revenge-based kidnapping by the super-white Josh Lucas. I'm not saying that non-white actors/characters should never be villains. But the larger context of Taken as I perceived it rubbed me the wrong way. Hey, it's just, like, my personal tastes, man. Nothing to stress out about.
Who's stressing? You're the one who says he gets creeped out by silly action movies. I just find your opinions on most things --including movies-- wildly inconsistent and often ridiculous. I mean, you get offended by insulting depictions of a group here to the point of refusing to watch, yet love The Mummy which depicts North Africans/Arabs as savages who are worth nothing more than being thieves, murderers, or cannon fodder. Even the "good guy" defenders of the secret of Imhotep are a bunch of barbaric murderers who mostly exist to get killed in droves in the first two films. I figured you'd have some lame excuse for why it doesn't REALLY count as a French film despite being completely French made, and you didn't disappoint. Don't just admit that you were wrong about your insinuation that it was made by Americans insulting the French. No, that would be expecting too much.
You're stressing. And since when have I ever walked out on a movie I'd paid for? I research my ticket purchases a bit more carefully than that. Sure, I was factually wrong about that, and I did admit as much. (Though it's hardly "completely French made" when it stars an Irishman and two Americans in the hero roles.) But the fact that it was a French-made flick that slanders Europe arguably makes it worse in that it allows people such as yourself to give it cover for that reason, when the content in question is the same. Maybe, but most whites in that movie are hardly depicted much better; many of them are barbarous and racist. Also, I tend to cut period pieces with supernatural/magical elements a bit of slack compared to modern, "real world"-set actioners. Do I therefore contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself. I am large; I contain multitudes. ... And you still haven't explained how the abductions in Taken and Stolen are so similar.
I think you need to get your sarcasm meter adjusted if you think I was seriously weeping or stressed about anything. Didn't you say you walked out on Knocked Up after a similar brief period (and heavily criticized that based on limited facts as well)? I just think it's strange that you're so vehemently judgmental of things you don't even watch more than a few minutes. Famke Janssen is Dutch (though she lives here) and barely in the film, but whatever. It doesn't slander Europe any more than the presence of a Banana Republic army bizarrely allowed to arm and mass its forces on an island off the coast of Santa Barbara, California slanders the US in Commando. It's just a silly action movie that uses the bad guys as a means to an end, not a documentary. They're not similar, other than you saying the very idea of an abduction taking place in Europe or America should be considered offensive. Neeson's character was worried about his seventeen year old daughter taking a trip around Europe with her equally young friend whom he didn't know. It's not overly paranoid to express some concern about that, regardless of what country the trip takes place in. His concern was about their age and lack of experience dealing with the occasional harsh realities of the world. And frankly, his daughter was pretty naive at that point. Yeah, he was a bit over-protective, and that was informed by his line of work, but it's not like it's out of line to even suggest the possibility of trouble and be prepared for it. By the way, the girls are scoped out by white French guys, kidnapped by white Albanian sex traffickers, sold to a white French "auctioneer," and finally sold to an Arab sheik before being saved. So only one out of four groups was non-white, though you're right about the immigrant thing with the Albanians.
Methinks it be time to agree to disagree. And no, I didn't think you were literally weeping. As for Knocked Up, I endured fully half of it (on dvd) before crying Uncle.
Over at the AV Club, Nathan Rabin gives this a more-affectionate-than-not C+ review: Meanwhile, Cage is uncharacteristically muted. He seems to have given up on making art long ago; these days, all he wants to do is entertain, and with Stolen, he succeeds, albeit only on the guilty-pleasure level. Like seemingly the sum of late-period Cage, Stolen is unashamedly cheese, but at least it’s cheese of a pungent, flavorful vintage.