Directed by: Pierre Morel
Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, and Famke Jensen
Plot: The seventeen year-old Kim is the pride and joy of her father, the retired agent Bryan Mills that left the secret service to stay near Kim in California. Kim lives with her mother Lenore and her wealthy stepfather Stuart; she convinces the reluctant Bryan to sign an authorization to travel to Paris with her friend Amanda. When they arrive, they share a cab with the stranger Peter and Amanda tells to him that they are alone in Paris. When Bryan succeeds in contacting his daughter, she tells that criminals have just break in the spot and they are kidnapped by an Albanese gang of human trafficking. Bryan promises in the phone to kill the kidnapper of his daughter and immediately travels to Paris to find Kim and chase the criminals. Taken from www.imdb.com.
Picture if you took Harry Callahan, John Rambo, Jason Bourne, and Jack Bauer and combined them into one single person. Well Liam Neeson would descend from the rafters and fucking kill that person.
With the exception of "Darkman" (whcich barely counts) I've never really seen Liam Neeson as a badass. After all, he did get killed by the guy who played Toad in "Star Wars: Episode 1."
Okay, so basically Liam Neeson plays Bryan Mills, a former special forces agent who has neglected his daughter because spending time with his family got in the way of his pointing-guns-at-people time.
Well now he's making amends by babying his bratty 26-year-old-playing-a-17-year-old daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) and trying to deal with his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Jensen) who just happens to be the bitch queen of bitch mountain where they bitch constantly (guess what their favorite Meredith Brooks song is... that's right, it's "Shout.")
Anyhow, said bratty daughter and her stupid friend head to Europe to follow U2 around the continent on tour. However, stupid friend informs some random guy they just met 15 seconds ago that two teenage girls are alone in Paris with no supervision.
So they get kidnapped. One would think that anyone who willingly follows U2 on tour deserves such a fate. So Bryan steps up and beats the everloving fuck out of anyone even remotely involved with his daughter's kidnapping. By the end of the movie I was honestly expecting Neeson to kick Bono in the face. (Which honestly would have been a kickass ending.)
I've never really been a fan of Liam Neeson in any capacity. Oh sure, he was good as Oscar Schindler but he was the most boring Jedi Knight and Batman villain I have ever seen. Even his portrayal as Darkman left something to be desired as he was replacing Bruce Campbell who would have done more justice in the role and was then eclipsed by Arnold fucking Vosloo (Imhotep from "The Mummy" for you non-movie buff types)
Now, don't get me wrong, Neeson hardly gives an Oscar worthy performance but he goes from old man to badass in no time. Seriously, one minute he gets his chest hair caught in his fly, the next he's wearing a leather jacket and killing people with a glare.
Maggie Grace (age 26) is one of the worst choices to play the character Kim ever. First of all, Maggie Grace couldn't pass for 17 if her life depended on it, not to mention she acts like she's 13. Kim is annoying, bratty, and I honestly didn't miss her for the 75% of the movie she wasn't in.
Famke Jensen as stated before plays a bitchy irresponsible ex-wife who really has no business raising a child. I guess she plays the part well but I was so busy trying not to be disgusted with the movie the whole time that I couldn't appreciate here performance.
So "Taken" is a thriller. I'm told that in the UK there exists and 18 (the UK equivalent of R) rated version. This is good, because for a movie that deals with a man killing an entire organization devote to child prostitution the movie lacked any balls.
This was the main problem I had with this film. The danger never felt dangerous, Liam Neeson never seemed to be any more than mildly inconvenienced and when it got to a truly pivotal scene (like Neeson torturing the man who kidnapped his daughter) you feel like a very passive viewer rather than an active one. It feels like you're watching actions on a screen rather than experiencing them and that's where I feel it dropped the ball.
"Taken" tries to be an intelligent and emotional thriller but often falls into the trappings of hollywood and that's where it falls flat. If it had been in spirit what it was in reality it would have been much better.
No less the story is well written, the action scenes are good but don't seem overdone or coreographed and especially aren't borderline stupid (I'm looking at you Jason Bourne.) We get a car chase but it's done fairly subtly, at least compared to most big budget films.
Mostly though, you don't watch this movie for quality, you watch it for the entertainment of watching Liam Neeson beat men to death with their own spines.
Also. Memorize this line, men with daugthers:
"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."
Use it on your daughter's first boyfriend. Trust me on this one.
"Taken" is half intelligent and emotional thriller and half cheap violent entertainment and while it fails at being either fully it does a pretty decent job at being both.
I give "Taken" a 4 out of 5.
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