Taken

Synopsis

A former spy (Liam Neeson, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian) relies on his special skills after his daughter is kidnapped in Paris. He stops at nothing to rescue her and breaks down the ruthless abductors to bring them to justice in his own way.

Review

I don’t know why this film took so long to come to America. It’s been out in other countries forever. Taken first opened in France last February. This film has action, grit, intensity, revenge and it shows the underbelly of Paris’ trafficking of women. Makes me think twice about going to Paris, that’s for sure.

Here’s the scoop. Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe), is a retired CIA Operative on a mission to find his missing daughter Kim (Maggie Grace, ABC’s Lost) using his “special skills” acquired throughout his career. Kim's 17-yr-old goofy self goes to Paris with her best friend and they are taken by some very ruthless abductors. From that moment, it’s on, and Taken takes the overdone kidnapping movie theme and makes it gully, gritty, and a good time.

First of all, I’m not going to let my innocent 17-year-old daughter (if I had one) go to Paris with her fast behind 19-year-old friend alone—even if they were staying with her girl’s cousins. I would be too scared. There's just too much to worry about out there, and then my baby is thousands of miles away in another country? Oh no. Maybe I’m being too tough? Nope! I just thought about this movie again and nope.

The movie did a good job of making you feel that Bryan really loved his daughter, so when she gets nabbed, you know it’s on, people. Bryan knows there’s usually only a 96-hour window to ever finding his daughter again, and this man stays focused and vows to the kidnappers that he will find them and kill them. Of course, they’re thinking... “Yeah right, good luck”, but they don’t realize years as a CIA operative makes Bryan harder than a coffin nail...don’t let the wrinkles fool you people.

Anyhoo, old man Bryan was banging and moving like Jason Bourne: Karate chopping people to death, shooting bad guys with ridiculous precision. It’s like the moment his daughter gets kidnapped, he’s this solid mass rolling down a hill. He just bowls through the whole film, chopping down miscreants like it’s all in a day’s pay. Writer/producer Luc Besson (The Transporter) has to always have a non-stop thrill movie with his lead character just running amuck. Liam was on fyah in Taken. I was thoroughly fascinated by his rawness. Think about it: There’s no time to be talking, begging and walking when you only have four days to find someone in a foreign country.

This film played out exactly the way I had hoped for from what was an intriguing trailer. The story definitely had some manipulation, but it didn’t matter, the film was still good with all the fight scenes. Whew! Bryan was on a mission to get his daughter back. He didn’t care about anything or anyone else and neither did I. You get to see a side of the criminal underworld that actually does exist, and this movie makes you wish what you saw wasn’t true. The next time I think about how beautiful Europe would be, this movie is going to make me think twice about booking that flight. You feel like the odds of getting jacked are like 90%. Did you see Hostel? I’m not at all saying Taken is a horror movie, but didn’t Hostel make you feel like you couldn't trust anyone who was being helpful to you in a foreign country? This film makes Virginia Beach look like the sensible vacation option.

Sure this movie has some ridiculous coincidences and some unrealistic scenes, but what movie doesn’t anymore? Taken is a hard action movie that will incite some kind of emotion in you. It did me, and I really liked that. I can’t believe how much I thought about Jason Bourne from The Bourne Identity and Jack Bauer from Fox’s 24. Taken had a lot of the same elements with the fighting, CIA special skills and the car chase scenes. All I know is, my time was not wasted.

My Rating ~ 4 Reels

Audience Rating (What's Yours?)