Oh, don't forget Ransom with Mel Gibson and Henry Hiil's call to his mule.

I always thought that single block of dialogue, delivered with impeccable conviction by Liam Neeson, was all that was needed to get me to see the film. The trailer would have been so powerful if it was just that, and of course followed by the anatagonist's reply - "Good luck."

That is not only some cool shit to say on screen, it's also the exact premise of the entire piece.

The other awesome cool phone dialogue in that film was when Neeson talks to his daughter, while she's hiding under the bed, and tells her, after a perfect beat of suspense, "...they are going to take you."

Those two brief, yet powerful, phone conversations would have been such a great way to sell that film...



I thought the film did not live up to what it could have been - the "good luck" villain wasn't worthy of being Neeson's adversary - not only would it have been far more powerful to pose Neeson against an oppositor equally as hard ass, but it would have flushed out the twenty or so minutes of straight-to-video storytelling style in trade for some hard boiled character points.

The scene where Neeson shoots his old associate's wife at the dinner table was great. The shit with the ex wife, and her rich new husband, wasn't.

Neeson's talent definitely carried that film and made up for that story's lack of... many things.

I guess that's what's great about writing, one can shape a story as one wishes to see it unfold. Maybe in --teen years there will be a remake of 'Taken' and hopefully one or two of US will have the opportunity to iron out its wrinkles while keeping the awesome phone dialogue...