Taken (Liam Neeson; Expendables and Sylvester Stallone)

This Blog Post was originally published on adagia.org.

A few years ago I stumbled upon a film with Liam Neeson. I can’t remember which one it was, but I remember enjoying him punching people.

Recently I watched Taken and I’m currently near the end of the second one. Before the pandemic, I saw Cold Pursuit with him and one thing I noticed that didn’t change is the base plot of his movies. Something happens and people are dying. Mostly the character Liam Neeson plays is the person dealing the headaches and shooting around.

However, there is one role I always only remember when I’m looking at the Wikipedia page of him, Oskar Schindler. The role that made him big. I think I remember watching “Schindlers Liste” back in primary school. It is a great and historically accurate (as far as I know) movie, although it also has the handwriting of Steven Spielberg.

Anyway, back to Taken. I notice some definite touching points with the “newer” John Wick stuff. Action, shooting, fighting. The story is only a side part of the whole movie and although no story is really “new” we still watch the movies.

I wonder how long we will be enjoying the “old” guys on the big screen? I saw on Instagram that Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham are working on Expendables 4 and I can’t wait to see it. But for how long are they going to do this kind of foolish and silly movies, and who will be doing them after they end their careers?