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A while back, I posted a review (or more specifically, a rant) on the whole Rich Dad Education/Academy for real estate investing “course”. My review, and opinions, still stand today. I hope I have warned some people about the disaster that the whole Kiyosaki “program” really is.

I’d like to make note of the fact that people are actually reading the review I posted. Google Analytics shows that people are spending a good 10-12 minutes on that page, informing themselves and preventing future mistakes. You’re welcome guys.

I’m also getting quite a few hits from people searching Pip Stehlik’s name, including the typos that go with it: “stelik” and “stehlick”. Oops.

Other keywords finding the review are “rich dad education” and, lo and behlod, “rich dad education scam“. I don’t have to explain the last one.

That is all. Carry on, gentlemen.

I was trying to delay writing this post, thinking it’s going to work out in the end, but I no longer have a choice. Maybe BMW West Island will finally take notice and give back what belongs to me.

Synopsis

BMW West Island (located in Dorval, Quebec) failed to sell me a car, and in return, has not credited my deposit of 200.00$. After repeated phone calls and text messages to the sales rep, I have gone ahead with a charge-back and the publication of this review.

The real reason for this review, however, is to bring light to some of BMW West Island’s shady practices when selling a car.

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A few weeks ago, I attended a 2-hour seminar on real estate investing by Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Education team. It was a free event with a lot of push on selling the 3-day workshop course on real estate investing, which was on March 4-5-6 and March 11-12-13. I figured since this was an area of topic I wanted to know more about, I decided to spend the 500$ and go for it. Alongside me that day was my real estate friend and business partner Thomas (not his real name). One of the perks of the training class was that you can bring a guest of your choice for no cost. Thomas and I decided to split the bill and go together, in hopes of learning more about flipping, rental property, tax strategies and asset protection. Basically, we wanted to have some passive income in the near future.

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There’s a new website in town that deals all there is to do in the city of Montreal: Montrealing. It’s not just a directory or reviews about restaurants, and it’s not a nightlife photo website either. Montrealing is all about what’s fresh and what’s not in the city. For example, what is currently the best shisha lounge in Montreal? You can go ahead and vote or simply see the current results. Montrealers are able to decide what’s good or bad and voice their own opinions instead of a review website telling them how it’s supposed to be. It’s democracy all the way.

There is, of course, a directory of clubs, lounges, bars and restaurants… but it doesn’t stop there. At Montrealing, you’ll be able to find a list of famous Montrealers, talk show and radio hosts, bartenders, bouncers, local DJs and news about local University and CEGEP teams. Oh yes, you’ll find plenty of editorials on the Habs too. For the tourists, there’s a compiled list of landmarks, hot spots and other fun facts about Montreal.

When I first heard about this movie, it was mentioned by two of my friends who happened to come across a bootleg copy of it several months ago. Taken hasn’t been released in North America yet (coming out January 30th) but I managed to watch a Blu-ray copy for this review this week, as it has been released in Europe first ages ago. Before I continue, I want to summarize the movie in a few words as quoted by my good friend: “It starts with Liam Neeson’s daughter getting kidnapped. For the remaining 1 hour of the movie, the screen is filled with the father going around stomping balls and kicking ass from left to right, non-stop.” I’ll do my best not to spoil this movie.

Taken starts off slow, but that’s the beauty of it as we must first introduce the characters and give a bit of background to the hero of the story. Bryan Mills (the father) is an ex-CIA agent who was divorced due to his job (lack of time spent with family I guess). His hot daughter Kim now lives with Bryan’s ex-wife, Lenore (who’s also hot) and the new husband, Stuart, who’s apparently loaded judging from the house and the horse he buys for Kim’s birthday. Seriously, who buys a horse as a birthday present? That is definitely something a wealthy person would do. Regardless, Bryan only cares for his daughter and wants to make up for the lost time he didn’t spend with her while overseas working.

To make some extra cash on the side, Bryan partakes in a small job of safeguarding a famous singer with his buddies from the CIA. We get a small glimpse of Bryan laying down the law on an assailant with a knife. Now we know that he’s not an old goof-ball but rather an ass-kicking machine that can use his hands and get dirty. While I’m not sure what the attacker wanted to do in the first place, it seems that he should have brought a gun instead of a butter-knife.

In the background is Bryan and the hot singer he's taking to safety. In the foreground is the guy who's ass is about to get handed to him.

Fast forward a bit, it seems that Kim and her best friend Amanda want to go to Europe to follow U2 around like a bunch of groupies. I would have much rather preferred they followed Pantera around instead, but I then realized that they don’t play anymore and that the drummer was shot a few years ago, which totally sucks. Anyway, the two hot chicks get captured by an Albanian criminal organization who drug girls into prostitution & slaves and then sell them off around the globe to various wealthy clients. So far, we’ve got a nice list of ingredients to make this movie worthwhile: ex-CIA father, hot daughter, hand-to-hand combat, city of Paris, knives, Liam Neeson, Albanian human traffickers, Audi automobiles, kidnapping, drugs, prostitutes and vengeance. Also, this hot Swiss chick makes an appearance.

Switzerland has the best girls and cheese.

Throughout the course of the movie, Bryan manages to track down the criminals clue by clue, since he’s a former CIA agent after all. He’s got all the tools and skills necessary to accomplish such a feat. This movie reinforces the fact that you should never fuck with government agents. God forbid you accidentally rear-end their car, forget to water their plants while they’re on vacation or you don’t have their favourite breakfast cereal in stock at your grocery store they shop at: these agents will use whatever they can to find you, and they will kill you.

Liam Neeson delivers justice with Charley horses.

Taken does not disappoint when it comes to action: Liam Neeson does a terrific job portraying a paranoid father and an ass-kicking expert who manages to take down groups of terrorists down in a single sitting. Every step he takes results in the death of a mobster. Slowly, he creeps into the whole organization’s efforts to traffic humans worldwide by visiting every base they have and taking them down several bullets at a time. The body-count of this movie must total over fifty if I’m not mistaken. While it’s not a lot (compared to Commando, for example) every shot he takes and necks he breaks quenches the thirst of violence a viewer may have. The way Neeson works is smart, as in he takes cover when appropriate and does not just fire random shots into the air.

Bryan having some coffee with the Albanians before he busts some colons.

The sound effects in this movie are well done. Every shot fired, grunt and scream is well placed and executed to add onto the already gritty feeling of the movie. One scene has Bryan taking out an entire base of Albanians, and the shots fired are pleasant to the ear; they had this loud thud noise that had an amazing impact. The music was also pretty good, with the last scene of the movie having a nice fast-paced electronic beat to get the blood going.

Each time a shot is fired, someone definitely dies at the mercy of Bryan.

Every action movie out there has to have a memorable moment for the viewer to walk away remembering. This results in the viewer then re-watching the movie at a future point or buying the DVD when it comes out because of a certain scene that stuck in their head. For example, a popular action movie is Rambo 2, and the one scene that stands out is when Stallone takes out the entire army base through covert means (the waterfall camouflage comes to mind for me). Taken has several of these scenes which are all memorable, and in my opinion an action movie should be this way: memorable scenes one right after the other to please the senses non-stop. The worst action movies are the ones where a hero must chase the enemy through a series of mazes in the dark, in hopes of catching him in time before he’s gone forever. This movie does away with all that crap and puts Neeson into the hot seat of a Formula 1 vehicle, with the car’s bumper replaced with knives & weapons and the accelerator glued to the floor.

Bryan and nails. You will not forget this scene.

There’s only a select few movies of this caliber out there in the world, and sad to say, I can count them on one hand right now: Transporter, Dawn of the Dead, The Bourne Identity and District B13 are on the same level of quality and action. If I’m not mistaken, all of these movies except Dawn of the Dead are made by European directors and companies, and are all based in European cities. It’s time for Hollywood to stop making their shitty action movies and learn from the pros for once. Taken is a prime example that an action movie can have several scenes (car chases, gun fights, martial arts, boats, explosions, social engineering, hostage rescuing, torture, etc.) stitched together in a logical flow that add value to the overall feel of the film. I predict the movie to be a great hit when it comes out next week. Go see it!