-
"It's not the years...it's the mileage."
Though the novelty of The Expendables' all-star cast of '80s and '90s action heroes wore off somewhat by the time The Expendables 2 hit theaters, the resurgence of aging tough-guy actors continues with the success of Liam Neeson's Taken 2, which beat down the competition this past weekend. And there's more to come. Ah-nuld's getting back in the game with The Last Stand and Bruce Willis is dusting off John McClane for a fifth go-round in A Good Day to Die Hard. But, not all aging actors can continue to pull off the kind of tough-guy roles they played in their youth. Tell us which over-50 actors still have what it takes to beat up the bad guys and come back for more.
Rate the Top 10 Tough-Guy Actors Over 50 Still Making Movies >>
Posted 10.09.12 by BrentJS -
| Title | Weekend | Total | Analysis |
| Taken 2 | $50M | $50M | One of the best October debuts ever and topping off Liam Neeson's biggest year ever |
| Hotel Transylvania | $26.3M | $76M | Not even Tim Burton proved to be much competition for this Adam Sandler 'toon |
| Pitch Perfect | $14.7M | $21.6M | Leveraged strong word of mouth into a solid third-place debut in wide release |
| Looper | $12.2M | $40.3M | Dropped a healthy 41% in its second weekend |
| Frankenweenie | $11.5M | $11.5M | Proof there's not room for two Halloween-themed cartoons |
get all your box office news hereWeeknights after the movies
Posted 10.08.12 by Chris -
The sh*t hits the fan.
more on taken 2 tonightWeeknights after the movies
Posted 10.05.12 by reelz -
The audience was certainly taken...
Taken 2 star Liam Neeson appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in a fuzzy pink bathrobe and a pair of very pink skivvies. The reason? Ellen had kidnapped his daughter... Wait, that's our new elevator pitch. Neeson was actually on the show to help support breast cancer research and the stunt helped raise $20,000 after the, er, healthy 60-year-old actor dropped trou and took his place in an impromtu dunk tank. A lucky audience member helped.
But you really just need to watch >> Posted 10.02.12 by Jud -
A new, longer international trailer for Taken 2 is now online and it shows Bryan "Very Particular Set of Skills" Mills (Liam Neeson) doing what he does best: kicking ass and taking names. Directed by Olivier Megaton (Transporter 3), the sequel to the 2009 smash-hit thriller Taken finds the family members of the Albanian kidnappers who snatched Mills' daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), in the first movie — and who got to witness Mills' skills firsthand — out for revenge. Led by Murad (Rade Sherbedgia), whose son was killed by Mills, the Albanians attempt to re-kidnap Kim, along with her mother, Lenore (Famke Janssen), and Mills himself. (Maybe they should have titled the movie "Taken, Too"?)
watch the new trailer >> Posted 08.02.12 by BrentJS -
After the 2009 thriller Taken became a breakout success, the question of a sequel became, "who will be taken next?" Wisely, producer and co-screenwriter Luc Besson and star Liam Neeson met to "hash out" sequel details a few years ago and decided that Neeson's character Bryan Mills, the former CIA operative with a particular set of skills, was going to be "taken" in the upcoming Taken 2.
While the decision avoids the groans from fans had the sequel again shown Mills' daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) get kidnapped in a new European locale, it seems the Mills family haven't learned their lesson about traveling in a foreign country. Both Mills and his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) are grabbed by the father of Kim's former kidnapper (Rade Sherbedgia). The recently released first trailer showed that Neeson won't spend the entirety of the sequel tied to a chair in a dark room, the latest international trailer shows that Kim will also be heavily involved in the action as she attempts to save her parents.
watch the trailer >> Posted 07.06.12 by Ryan -
It seems appropriate that the first poster for Taken 2 should arrive in the form of a U.K. quad poster and that the first footage should arrive in an international trailer.
Set a year after the events of 2009 thriller Taken, the sequel sees CIA operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) feeling comfortable enough to head back to Europe after previously helping save his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) from being kidnapped during her French vacation. Arriving in Istanbul for vacation, Mills is surprised by Kim and his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) — who is now maybe his wife wife instead of an ex-wife? — and finds himself and Lenore quickly grabbed by the father of Kim's former kidnapper (Rade Sherbedgia). While we're sure that Neeson will use his "particular set of skills" to save himself and his wife, Grace will also have to help out as well.
watch the trailer and see the poster >> Posted 06.22.12 by Ryan -
It was 2008's Taken that made Liam Neeson Hollywood's most unlikely action star (the actor turns 60 this June). Since then, Neeson has gone on to kick ass in movies like The A-Team, Unknown, and The Grey. Now, Neeson is back as former spy Bryan Mills in Taken 2.
In the sequel, Mills is kidnapped by the same thugs who kidnapped his daughter in the original but by the looks of the recent photos posted by Entertainment Weekly, the bad guys didn't do a good job containing him since he's seen running around with a gun and cracking some skulls. According to Neeson, the sequel takes places a year and a half after the original.
I’m taken — let’s put it that way. They kidnap him to humiliate him, torture him, and ultimately bring him back to the village in Albania where the boys from the original film came from. With the help of my daughter... she wants to help me escape from where these bad guys have me.
Though most of the movie is already in the can (production took place in Istanbul, L.A., and Paris), Neeson said he's heading back to Paris for reshoots.
I have to go back over soon because there are a few little scenes we can improve. It’ll be lovely to see Famke [Janssen] again, and Maggie [Grace]. We make a good team, the girls in my life.
check out the new pics >> Posted 05.17.12 by Chris -
There's just no stopping Liam Neeson. Although he will turn 60 this year, 2012 will prove to be one of the most prolific years of his career. Neeson kicked off the new year with the "man vs. wild" thriller The Grey in January, which went on to earn nearly triple its budget, and he is currently starring in Wrath of the Titans. He's got Battleship opening in May, a cameo role in The Dark Knight Rises in July and he has already wrapped shooting on Taken 2, due out in October. Now, Variety has reported that Neeson is in negotiations to headline a new thriller that takes place aboard an airliner titled Non-Stop.
Warner Bros. picked up the spec script for Non-Stop from the screenwriting duo of John Richardson and Chris Roach back in August and handed it off to Joel Silver's Dark Castle Entertainment, which is financing and producing the movie. If negotiations go smoothly, Neeson will play a "worn-out air marshal who faces a threat while traveling on an international flight" (Speed on a plane, anyone?). Jeff Wadlow (Never Back Down) will direct.
Posted 04.05.12 by BrentJS -
Ever since director Christopher Nolan mentioned that his third and final Batman movie would be about "finishing the story" he began in Batman Begins, there has been speculation that The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR) would feature the League of Shadows and possibly Ra's al Ghul (Liam Neeson), the villainous leader of the group that taught Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) many of the skills he uses as Batman. Sure, Ra's apparently died at the end of Batman Begins, but comic book fans know that Ra's is virtually immortal thanks to the mystical powers of the Lazarus Pit, so "dying" isn't much of an obstacle.
Fan speculation turned out to be correct when it was revealed that Ra's would be appearing in TDKR, though played by the much-younger Josh Pence instead of Neeson. Was Ra's rejuvenated in the Lazarus Pit or is Pence playing Ra's in flashback? We still don't know the answer to that question, but now we do know that Neeson — whose voice appears in the trailer and who admitted to being on set "for maybe an hour-and-a-half" — will be making an appearance in the TDKR thanks to Warner Bros. production notes for another Neeson movie, Wrath of the Titans.
more about The Dark Knight Rises >> Posted 03.30.12 by BrentJS