Taken

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue.

Taken
I never got around to seeing Taken when it was in theaters, so I'm glad it's out on DVD. The movie stars Liam Neeson as a former spy whose daughter (Maggie Grace) is kidnapped while vacationing with a friend in Paris. The kidnappers work for human traffickers, which gives the plot an even creepier twist.

Special features include an extended cut audio commentary by director Pierre Morel, cinematographer Michel Abramowicz and car stunt supervisor Michel Julienne, and a making-of featurette.

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Two more up next so read more

Last week Watchmen screenwriter David Hayter posted an open letter to fans asking them to buy more tickets to see his movie, warning that "if it drops off the radar after the first weekend, they will never allow a film like this to be made again."

Well, it looks like his plea went unheeded as Watchmen slipped from the top spot, coming in at No. 2 behind Disney's family-friendly Race to Witch Mountain.

The Last House on the Left took the third spot, followed by Taken at No. 4 and Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail at No. 5.

Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

Zack Snyder's long-awaited screen adaptation of Watchmen finally hit theaters over the weekend and scored the best opening of the year with an estimated $55.7 million. Apparently that's actually a bit of a disappointment to the studio which, according to Variety, "had hoped Watchmen would match, or even best, the $70.9 million domestic opening of Zack Snyder's previous film, 300, which bowed on the same weekend in 2007."

The rest of the top five at the box office was all mixed up with Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail coming in second place, followed by Taken in third, Slumdog Millionaire in fourth, and Paul Blart: Mall Cop in the fifth spot. Oh, Paul Blart. America just can't seem to quit you.

So what did you see over the weekend? Did you venture out into the world of Watchmen?

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

It's no surprise that when Tyler Perry has a movie out, it's going to do well at the box office — but $41 million well? Dang! Madea Goes to Jail took the top spot over the weekend and is Perry's best debut to date.

Taken, Coraline, and He's Just Not That Into You continued to do good business, coming in second, third, and fourth respectively. Meanwhile, the fifth spot went to this year's "little film that could" and newly crowned Oscar-winning Best Picture. Variety reports:

Fox Searchlight reached Oscar Sunday with Slumdog Millionaire enjoying a ninth straight week in the top 10.

The weekend's other wide release debut, Fired Up, opened at No. 9.

Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

The economy may be on shaky ground but you wouldn't know it by looking at the box office totals from this weekend. The Friday the 13th remake actually set records and had "the best opening ever for a horror movie in grossing an estimated $42.2 million from 3,105 theaters through Sunday." Meanwhile He's Just Not That Into You exceeded expectations by snagging the No. 2 spot over the weekend, while Liam Neeson's Taken continued to do strong box office business and came in third place. Confessions of a Shopaholic had a disappointing debut at No. 4.

Coraline rounded out the top five while Paul Blart: Mall Cop, at No. 6, became the first original January release to reach $100 million. Dang!

Finally, Clive Owen and Naomi Watts weren't enough star power to save The International from a lackluster debut. The thriller managed seventh place.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Big name stars plus romantic self-help equals box office bucks this past weekend as He's Just Not That Into You took the No. 1 spot earning an estimated $27.5 million. The action flick Taken slipped to No. 2 though it still performed well, and was followed by Coraline, The Pink Panther 2, and Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

Variety notes how a weekend like this affects smaller, Oscar-nominated films: "The torrent of highly commercial new releases dinged the Oscar-nominated pics, which—outside of Slumdog Millionaire, The Wrestler and The Reader — saw virtually no bump. That's rare for kudos contenders in February."

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Liam Neeson's thriller Taken scored the top spot at the box office this weekend, which according to Variety, proves that "male-driven pics can open successfully on Super Bowl weekend." Last year Miley Cyrus brought her magic to the big screen over Super Bowl weekend and broke records.

Meanwhile, Paul Blart: Mall Cop continues to do well and dropped to the No. 2 spot after two weeks in first place. People love this movie! Elizabeth Banks's horror flick, The Uninvited, came in No. 3 followed by Hotel for Dogs and Gran Torino.

Finally, New in Town, the romantic comedy starring Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. had a disappointing (though not unexpected) debut at No. 8, only earning an estimated $6.8 million.

Photo courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

If this pattern keeps up it will become "spooky trailer" week here on Buzz, starting with yesterday's preview for The Happening. Today I present the trailer for Taken, starring Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen and Lost's Maggie Grace. I have high hopes for this thriller as it was co-written by Luc Besson, the mind behind one of my favorite movies, The Professional.

Taken follows Neeson's character Bryan, whose daughter (Grace) goes on a fun, innocent trip to Paris with her friend. The scary stuff starts when Bryan gets a panicked call from his daughter as she's being kidnapped.

At first I thought this might be another run-of-the-mill ransom movie, but then Bryan informs the kidnappers that he does not have money, but rather a set of "skills" that makes him a "nightmare for people like them." Scary!

Taken opens in France on February 28, though there's no information yet on a U.S. release date. To check out the trailer, read more