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Produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by 10 different directors (including Tobe Hooper), "Taken" is just a wonderful boxed set! I'm assuming this originally aired on the Sci Fi channel, but I'd never heard of it until I spied it on the shelves at Best Buy the other day. It sounded extremely interesting, and was being compared to Band of Brothers, only with Aliens... how could I resist?

Taken is the story of 3 families and how they deal with alien abductions and conspiracies over the span of four generations and about 50 years, beginning at about WWII and going to present day. We start with the Roswell (Groom Lake) thang then progress to modern day. *

Spielberg has always been fascinated with Aliens and like many of us, he believes they do exist and it's only a matter of time before we run into them. He enjoys exploring various scenarios involving Aliens in his movies, like "ET" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". This is one of his best endeavors to date.

Taken starts off a little slow while it builds character and you will sometimes get a little confused on who is who. Do pay attention. It's worth the effort. Once you are comfortable with the family trees, this series picks up the pace and drives you to stay up all night to find out what happens next.

8 This is a 6 disc set, with 2 episodes on each of the first 5 discs for a total of 10 episodes. Since this is really a long sequential movie rather than, say, a series like "X-Files", I can't give you an over-view on each episode without giving away key elements, and that just wouldn't be fair to you. The entire run time is 14 hours and 45 minutes. We watched it over 3 days, but I anticipate a Taken marathon session in the future. heh. I absolutely plan to watch this again soon.

88 There are too many actors to note each one, but I would like to say that Dakota Fanning (Cat in the Hat, Trapped, Sweet Home Alabama) is remarkable. Truly outstanding little girl, that. She narrates the entire series and comes into play about half way through as Allie, a hi-bred child who is the end result of selective breeding. Again, remarkable. This little girl acted circles around the rest of the cast and they weren't slouches either. You believed this kid was the end-all be-all of evolution to this point.

Another face you may find familiar is Matt Frewer as Dr. Chet Wakeman. Frewer was the prototype and voice behind the delicious Max Headroom in 1985. He is just as sarcastic and fun as his Max character was back then. Love him! Frewer gave this an element of fun that was just the icing on the cake.

Each of the 10 episodes has a different director, and yet it remains coherent. Tobe Hopper I think did the first episode. You know him from the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He's followed by Breck Eisner, Félix Enríquez Alcalá (TV's Adventures of Brisco County Jr and Sliders), John Fawcett (Boy's Club), Jeremy Paul Kagan, Michael Katleman, Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, Bryan Spicer, Jeff Woolnough (The Outer Limits, 1995), and Thomas J. Wright. It was really seamless in spite of so many hands being in the pot. *

This is unrated but I would say an easy 13 and up... I would personally let any age watch if they could make it through the beginning set up. There is little language, and one brief but blurred sex scene between two of the principals on the Alien ship which is played over a few times. Nothing too racy though.

The image transfer was just about perfect. I watched this originally on a Sony 36" Wega and could discern zero pixilation in the video. I noticed no blurring in that aspect. However, in some of the Special Features there is a slight amount of bleed in text portions. This doesn't make it too difficult to read, but sometimes may make you squint on a smaller screen.

Sound: The Dolby Digital contain up to 5.1 channels of discrete audio. Dolby Surround Soundtracks contain up to four channels of encoded audio. Playback from 2-channel DVD outputs is compatable with Dolby Stereo and Dolby Prologic reproductions. I'm not a techno-geek in any way, so all I can tell you is that the transfer to DVD was amazingly well done. The sound is rich and deep. In a few spots the bass lines want to over-do the actor's voices, but it is not so bad that you still can't understand the dialogue as with some soundtracks. _ _

The 6th disc is Special Features and all of them are worth watching. "Inside Taken" discusses Spielburg's obsession with Aliens. "Taken" was such a big story that he felt it couldn't be condensedinto a 2 hour movie. The only way to pull it off would be in the form of a mini-series. The Sci-Fi channel eagerly gave him the time slots to this. In this feature you will go from conception to actual filming, including discussions with writer Leslie Bohem and a few of the main actors.

"The Cast Of Taken" will show you a bit on the actors and how they feel both about the movie itself, and the filming in general.. and what it was like for each of them to have the opportunity to work with Spielburg.

"A New Reality" goes into the visual effects team and how they went about creating the Aliens and whatnot, and incorporated them into the film after shooting was finished. For instance, they took an original photograph from the air done in the 1950s and used it as background for the opening fighter pilot sequence. They did not skimp on talent for the FX in this. They treated it like a major threatical release rather than a made-for-TV movie. Just really interesting to watch this featurette.

In "Time Warp", you learn what techniques were used by which director and why. For example, shots of the WWII planes who spotted lights back in the 1940's was done to look like a documentary for a historical feel. As time progressed in the movie, different lighting was used too. If it happened in the 70s, then the type of lights they used for movies back then were used in "Taken". They really got into putting you in the era.

"A Singular Vision" explains why they decided to go with 10 different dircetors, and how each worked very well as a team to make this a cohesive movie. It just amazes me how Spielburg could take 10 different big names and not have it ruined by someone's ego. This one will also go intoa bit about how they individualized each episode while not ruining any continuity whatsoever. This one is probably my favorite of the Special Features.