Bryan Millers (Lee Tergesen) is a former CIA agent who is now a mall cop. His ex-wife (Lauren Stamile) is looking to remarry a porn star named Money Maker (Reno Wilson) while his daughter (Laura-Leigh) attempts to lose her virginity. Meanwhile there are evil Albanians who are lead by Brown Finger (Margaret Cho).
The film is a near "Airplane" style spoof of Liam Neeson films, mostly the "Taken" series. The humor was on the predictable side, in this smile out loud production. The film copies the Woody Allen "Screw" scene from "Bananas."
Guide: F-bomb, sex, nudity? Large fake male organ
Plot summary
Bryan Miller's is an ex-CIA agent who is now a security guard. He's divorced with a teenage daughter and a wife ready to remarrying a porn star called "Big Anaconda". His life is unraveling as he cant keep puppies in his car or communicate with his daughter. He buys "Vialis" to try to reenergize his life. Meanwhile the company which causes a fire. His life is full of mishaps, can he save his daughter and wife while trying to save himself?
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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I have skills.
Better than expected
For a spoof movie there should be little to expect. Spoofing the Taken series is something which surprisingly took a while to be made (Tooken was released after Taken 3- so they waited until the Taken franchise was complete). With the instant success of the first Taken film, one would have expected a spoof film have been made immediately.
This film is quite short in runtime which benefits it as they ensure it doesn't drag on. Some clever gags, the obvious and expected over the top humor, a lot more gross humor (dick jokes) than expected, cheap one liners and innuendoes.
The lead actor impersonating Liam Neeson does a great job, the wife has a resemblance to the Taken wife of Lenore and for some reason the daughter is more overly specialized here.
Don't expect anything great but in comparison to other spoof films such as Epic Movie or Disaster Movie, Tooken is a clear step above. Reason being, there is a consistency in plot and it doesn't seem like a bunch of random scenes sketched together. It has its moments, some things work while some fall flat. Which was expected.
Just like the Taken movies, a missed opportunity
Bryan Millers is a former CIA agent, now a security guard at a pet store. He still is in love with is ex-wife Lenore who by now is involved with a black former porn actor. Bryan has a teenage daughter who's eager to lose her virginity, something he's not about to let happen. He's also interested in trying the latest ED medication, even though as far as we can tell, he doesn't have a woman.
One night at work he sees a bunch of Albanians loading explosives. He confronts them and next day he walks up to the pet store HQ to again confront the gangsters. We learn that behind them is some sinister figure.
It takes a while but eventually Bryan, his mom--also a former CIA agent, and Lenore get "taken". We learn more about the sinister boss and what he's up to. In the meantime the daughter and Lenore's guy will have to rescue them and Bryan will have to confront the bad guy.
The Taken franchise, and for that matter all Liam Neeson movies, are ideal material for a parody. And initially it looks like Tooken will to just that. This Bryan endlessly brags about his special skills but just like the other Bryan rarely displays the alleged skills. For some reason, Mills' lame friends don't make an appearance here.
Unfortunately, Tooken instead of being a "serious" parody quickly descends into adolescent territory with countless gross moments, that wouldn't be funny even to teenagers. I counted four instances that made me chuckle but there wasn't any particularly funny scene or line. Tooken could have ridiculed the over the top violence, Mills' absurd obsession with his ex, the annoying daughter. But it doesn't. It comes across more like a really poor comedy that was quickly adapted into a Taken scenario.