 Oh hey Adam, it's John. I just call him to see if you had time to line up the details on our next video we were doing. I don't know who you are. Yes you do. I just told you. I don't know what you want. If you're looking for ransom I can tell you I don't have money because I'm on YouTube. Oh, are we doing a taken bit? This is a taken bit. But what I do have is a very particular episode idea. A movie feud I've acquired over a very long career. It will make a nightmare for people like you. By the way, congrats on the new set. Do you all net yourself or are you leasing it from talk soup? If you do this episode with me that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you. I will not pursue you. If you don't, I will look for you. I will find you and I will feud with you. Again, good luck. The original taken was a sleeper hit. Not even the studio had faith in it, shelving it in the States for over a year. The Bourne trilogy is far better than taken, far none. And that's thanks to a much stronger lead performance by Matt Damon. Damon was still in divers when Nissan was getting nominated for Academy Awards. Casting an older, well-known dramatic actor one of his first substantial action roles was a risky move, but it paid off. Watching Liam kick ass and take names through the underbelly of Paris is such a fantastic novelty. It doesn't even matter how convenient the plot progresses. The movie promises unapologetic punches to the face and Schindler's fist delivers. Liam struggles to handle any emotion outside of serious. Watching him try to bro it up with his buddies playing golf or grilling is just absurd. Whereas Goodwill Hunting easily slipped into the role of a killing machine. With him is a great cast of supporting stars including Julia Stiles, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Carl Urban, and Joan Allen. There are many other key players, but I don't need to mention them. Your list consists of mother, daughter, father in all three films. First of all, Brian Cox sucks. That's better than the reverse, John. Sucks. God. Seriously though, he's awful as the bad guy, just an old dude who doesn't want to be there. His motivations remain terribly under explained. And for Taken, what about Zander Berkeley as the douchey stepfather, or Leland Orser as the helpful guy back home, or French Kevin Spacey? Plus, you've got a host of Albanian thugs who make for some great bullet fodder. Maggie Grace might be generally helpless as a character, but she's perfectly capable as an actress, and is able to hold her own here. A capable actor. Okay, she's like 32, trying to play 16, and fully no one. Julia Stiles is 20, trying to play 30, it seems. She's out of her depth in all three born movies. The only actress worth mentioning is my beautiful fam, Kay. My beautiful bride. Taken has no story. It shows what would happen if you stole something important from the wrong man. Taking it to the streets is basically the same movie, but way shittier. And I don't even know what the f**k Taken when it was about. What I'm getting at is there's no consistency here, there's no beginning, middle, and end. It's just a cluster f**k of nonsense in all three movies. You're underselling it, Adam. Sure, it's simple and quick, but in a good way. The entire Taken trilogy feels like that iconic scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Indy just draws his gun and shoots the master swordsman, not even giving him a chance to fight. By totally disrespecting the conventions of the genre, writer-producer Luke Besen shows audiences a refreshing take on an old formula. Plus, the bit where Liam uses echolocation to locate nearby grenade blasts, it's so preposterous it actually works. The three-part Bournefest feels like a complete package with a beginning, middle, and end. It's the real deal, holy f**k. We learn more about Jason's true backstory as we dive deeper into this world. And these films twist more than a kid with vertigo on a roundabout. There is a constant sense of danger thanks to the director's unsteady hand with the camera. The flicks keep you guessing what Bourne will do next, and even when you know he's gonna play a peekaboo with a federal agent, it's still a blast to watch. I disagree. The Bourne trilogy, since I guess you're completely unwilling to defend legacy, feels like one mediocre story and then two completely disconnected sequels that abandon the entire amnesia premise for one long four-hour chase sequence. It gets tiresome. Taken meanwhile never wastes your time. It's a non-stop ride for all three films. But remind me again, how does supremacy begin? Alright, this is clearly a setup question, but I'll bite. Bourne is discovered while hiding, forcing him back into the field. I thought he was supposed to be a super spy. He can't even stay off the grid for one movie. And he's in India before smartphones existed. You can bet if Liam Neeson wanted to stay invisible, you'd never see him again. You would just hear his disembodied voice yelling at you from beyond the grave whenever you're about to kill a bunch of sand people or something. Is that a Qui-Gon Jinn reference, John? Indeed it was, my young Padawan. Most of the Bourne series is spent listening to old white guys complain about pay grades, clearance levels, document faxing, phone intercepting, and commuting to their crappy office jobs. Everything involving their mysterious agency is over complicated and uninteresting. Hardly exciting spy stuff. As ridiculous as the Bourne films get at times, I can believe in them thanks to Matt Damon's physicality and the well-shot action. We see him jump through windows, scale the sides of buildings, pummel multiple dudes at once, dirt bike through small villages, etc. And I'm in with him all the way. As cool as Liam Neeson is, I don't buy his skills anymore. There's a part in Taken 2 where a few guys are chasing him by doing parkour along the alleyways. Meanwhile, here's Liam Neeson having a nice bit of a jog. I fear he's turning in the Stevens to go. This is not a game. You might think you have the advantage here, Adam, but not so fast. The Bourne redundancy has some of the sloppy, shaky-cam action in cinema. Oh, the plot intensified? Better start jerking the camera around like a 13-year-old to just learn how to masturbate for the first time. Paul Greengrass is normally a very competent director, but his kinetic handheld style is annoying at best and headache-inducing at worst. Later, Jason, I can't remember my own last name, Bourne, plays bumper cars with a Russian taxi through the streets of Moscow. Seriously, that car was built like a tank. But my biggest gripe is that Damon never kills any of the main antagonists, not one of them. How unsatisfying is that? Right, unlike Liam Neeson's character who just mows down waves of innocent bystanders, that's what I want from my Taken franchise, needless casualties. No one in that series has anything remotely interesting about them and you want to criticize the Bournes director? Did you watch Taken 2 and 3? Olivia Megaton? Megaton? Yeah, that's his f***ing name. That's the name he's assigned himself. Transformers, directors, and duskies. Good, right. Let's talk about how Megaton... I can't even say his name without laughing. Let's talk about how Megaton filmed the action in these films. It looks like he strapped a GoPro to about 30 different birds and just let them loose everywhere. This is action, I'm filming it. It's terrible. But let's get back to something that works and that's the fights in the Bournes franchise. Jason can easily take out two or three routine cops in a matter of seconds, but the real thrill is seeing them go up against an equally skilled adversary. He turns simple household items into deadly weapons and those car chases are as thrilling today as they were a decade ago. I'm just glad D-Box chairs weren't readily available when Bournes hit theaters. Everyone would be on the floor in a puddle of their own vomit three minutes in. Because of the shaking? Because of the shaking. Bobby's Extreme Ways may be an incredibly dated song today, but it works as a fantastic cap to each installment. But Nathaniel McCauley is no slouch either, providing a loud intense score that amps the tension during the blistering final act of each taken film. Blistering final act, Jesus Christ, just because you use extreme adjectives to describe something does not make them such. By the time the third film was winding down, I was more taken with my watch. I had to do a taken pun at some point. John Powell gives us a lot of great material beyond just Moby and they matched the setting perfectly. From Moscow to India, there's always a great score to keep you engaged. I remember everything. Before 2008, Liam Neeson wasn't an action star, but ever since Maggie Grace got took, he's been in about a dozen such films and it's all because of his re-breakout performance as Brian Mills. Taken is to Neeson as airplane was to Nielsen. They're fast, fun, satisfying pulp with awesome gunplay and badass takedowns. And while the sequels weren't as good, they provided more of the same and certainly weren't awful. The entire trilogy is a perfectly paced thrill ride. First off, Johnny Boy, the retaking in and take three were awful. Secondly, the taken franchise is a me too born. It looks up to born. It wants to be it, but it's nowhere close. I also want to say they're making a true fourth film. Damon's coming back and I'm excited. Fifth, there will be five born films. You're so embarrassed by legacy you won't even acknowledge it exists. At least Taken didn't switch horses midstream for a younger, less talented lead. Just plug your show. I've been on a few nations twice before so I trust your audience is familiar with my review show, Movie Night. But what they might not know is that for the next four weeks I'm exclusively discussing action heroes. It's all part of the second annual action movie month. Visit youtube.com slash Jogwheel to check it out, leave a comment or two and maybe even subscribe. As always, Adam, it's been a pleasure. Thank you for having me on. The pleasure is all yours, John. I can assure you that. What I'm more interested in what you, the viewer has to say. I've lost the last two feuds with Paula so a winner would be a refreshing change of pace and certainly a step in the right direction for 2015. Post a comment, head to feudnation.com to vote for your winner and check me out on Facebook and Twitter to stay up with the show. If you really like what I'm doing, head on over to patreon.com slash feudnation and throw me a buck or two. Any little bit would make a huge difference. It would really help me continue to keep this show moving. And until next time, this is more than just reviews. This is Movie Feuds. Hey, nice looking set here, Tosh.0. When does rep redemption start? Get the hell out of here, Paula.