Liam Neeson saves his daughter--James Bond style

Going to the ocean (Ocean Shores) on a rainy, windy weekend is always a good time to catch up on some movies that you meant to see but never did earlier in the year, so that's how I watched TAKEN (2009), which has Liam Neeson in full 007 mode--he out maneuvers James Bond in some scenes. The film is quite unbelievable and full of holes and coincidences, yet moves along with such breakneck speed that it's easy to forgive. When his daughter is kidnapped in Paris by some nasty eastern Europeans who force girls into the sex trade "industry," Neeson (who conveniently worked for the "government" in "security" and has a LOT of connections even though he's now retired) jumps a plane and with-in 36 hours has left a LOT of dead bodies around Paris, all without detection or injury/death to himself, SINGLE HANDEDLY mind you. Hey, it's a mindless film for rainy days.
In a lighter vein, GHOST TOWN (2009) slipped through theatres last spring and I had labeled it a dvd movie at the time, so, perfect time to catch up on this Greg Kinnear/ Ricky Gervais vehicle, which proved to be rather delightful and touching. Something about dentist Gervais who has a near death experience during a colonoscopy (!) who can suddenly see the ghosts walking among us when no one else can. He's a jerk and doesn't want to help these ghosts resolve their problems, and Kinnear is a ghost (and also a jerk) who has unresolved issues with his wife (Tea Leoni) and arranges Gervais to woo her. Some of it is quite funny in a gentle sort of way and even thought one might forget about the film in a week, it's still amusing to watch.
The western RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY(1962) was one of director Sam Peckinpah's early triumphs, with the classics STRAW DOGS, WILD BUNCH, THE GETAWAY, etc, all created withing the next 10 years. It's almost more of a character study as two old-time gunslinger buddies sign up to help safeguard a shipment of gold from mining camp back to town--but one has an ulterior motive which causes problems and a lot of tension. Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott are both excellent as greed and danger pull their friendship apart. Three fine films for that rainy day anywhere, anytime.