Liam Neeson, an erstwhile dramatic actor, triggered a chain reaction when he turned action-star at 56 with the fabulously kinetic Taken (2008).
Following Taken’s monstrous success, numerous ageing actors attempted to cash in on what could effectively be referred to as the ‘Taken formula.’
“If Oskar Schindler can become Rambo, why can’t I?”
Most of these attempts led to failure, including the Taken sequels.
Why did they fail? Because while they sought to recreate the Taken formula – an ageing actor who plays a man with a special set of skills who is out of the game/on the run, that’s all they did.
They had no Szechuan sauce. No novelty.
Think Mel Gibson in Blood Father, Sean Penn in The Gunman, Kevin Costner in 3 Days to Kill or Pierce Brosnan in The November Man.
All those films attempted to ride on the coat-tails of Taken’s success, and all of them backfired.
The Equalizer was a notable exception, but only because of Denzel Washington. Why? Because he’s Denzel Washington. King Kong ain’t got shit on him. He can make reading the phone book riveting. Mah man.
Denzel’s off-the-charts charisma aside, almost all of these Taken clones were doomed from the outset, and you could always tell.
And that’s what I thought John Wick was going to be.
One year prior to the film, Keanu Reeves had suffered the ignominy of starring in 47 Ronin, one of the greatest box office bombs of all time.
In fact, it had been a long time since Reeves was a relevant force in the industry. Now was the time to sell Keanu stocks, and fast!
So, what did we have with John Wick? Another Taken knock-off, starring an ageing actor seemingly past his sell-by-date and directed by some dudebro named Chad.
But, come October 2014, John Wick released, and all doubts are thunderously silenced.
It was and remains a genuinely outstanding action movie. And perhaps knowingly or unknowingly, it is the perfect Taken clone, because it improves on it.
John Wick shares the same economy in storytelling and a fat-free narrative that lent such propulsion to Taken.
And while for all his talents, Keanu can’t match up to Neeson’s dramatic pedigree, John Wick makes up for it with outstanding fight choreography, an area where it blitzes Taken out of the water.
And that is ultimately why John Wick succeeded where so many others perished. Its skeleton might have been borrowed from Taken, but in Keanu Reeves, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, the film had its Szechuan sauce.
It was novel. And at its core, just fiercely entertaining and absurdly cool.
And now, the term ‘Taken clone’ has been lost to time. Now, those films are referred to as ‘John Wick clones.’
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