Liam Neeson tears up Paris in Taken!

Did you even play one of those drinking games where you took a drink of beer every time a character said a word or phrase? I’m sure most of you have and many have likely adapted this game to include are repetitious things. Perhaps it’s a little weird, but this was something I actually thought about while watching the movie, Taken, starring Liam Neeson.

If you’ve followed Neeson’s on-screen career, you know that he’s not exactly known as an action hero, so-to-speak, but let’s just say that in Taken, he takes vengeance to another level.

With his daughter in the hands of Albanian child smugglers, Neeson’s character is on the loose in Paris and seemingly everyone that gets in his way gets shot, stabbed, or receives knuckle to the throat. Neeson even indulges in some Jack Bauer-esque torture tactics and for a moment you thought that he might let the guy live. Guess again.

All-in-all, Taken was surprising good. The plot had certainly been done before – Harrison Ford in Frantic comes to mind, but the action is fast-paced and the script is succinct and the movie runs around an hour and a half. This one gets a B+ for pure body count!

On 24, Jack Bauer to fight back from an impossible end!

Less than 12 hours after I watched the latest episode of 24, I heard that Keifer Sutherland has decided to come back for an eighth season. I found the timing of the announcement to be a bit odd when the show is continuing to try to build suspense and momentum. Why? Well we left off last night with Jack Bauer having tested positive for exposure to a rare disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. While he was intentionally exposed via a terrorist bio-agent, it is explained in the show that there is no cure and that 100% of patients die.

So to me, that begs the question of how Jack gets out of this one. I mean it’s not like they are going to come up with a cure to a disease that has no cure. So what will it be? A false positive? Presumably that would have to be it unless they stretch the truth so far as to come up with an anecdote. While that may work for the show, it’s just not in the cards in the real world right now and having just had a friend pass away from the disease, I know many people who want answers as to the future of research. No, I don’t expect to get answers from 24, but it should be interesting to see what happens and I’m definitely psyched that Jack will be back again next year!

There's always time to watch one's favorite show!

There are several television shows that I watch throughout the week. Some are ones that I DVR and can’t wait to tune in and then there are those that I watch because my wife enjoys them. That’s isn’t to say that I don’t like them, but it’s suffice to say that The Biggest Loser isn’t my first choice for shows to watch when there are alternatives like the Sci-Fi Channel and some cool shows on the Discovery Channel. That being said, we are both still in the first several months of our marriage and I think that it’s important to have some give and take. I know full well that if I really wanted to watch Battlestar Galactica, Julie would either go upstairs to another tv or just switch it, but the point is for us to be together. It doesn’t really matter what it is we’re watch because family time is family time. This is of course when the DVR becomes such a great thing to have. We can watch The Bachelor all night long and I don’t mind because I can still watch Jack Bauer take on the rest of the world after she goes to bed!

24 - Jack is back after a year off!

The last two nights have been quite the relief after over a year without the Power of Bauer. Yep, Jack is back and things are a bit different in the ever-changing world of “24.” While I wasn’t all that impressed with Redemption, I was pleased with the opening 4 hours of the new season of “24.”

Now I’d be remiss to not mention that I’m not too pleased with how Jack is being treated after saving the world more times than Superman, but we all know that Jack is always the hero and both the Department of Justice and the FBI are just jealous. Nevertheless, there were the usual twist and surprises and many have already panned out in pleasing fashion. My only complaint is having to wait a week till the next episode.