Taken
Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Xander Berkeley, Famke Janssen
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Genre: Action-Thriller
Rating: R, for violence.
Luc Besson pens and Pierre Morel directs this somewhat mindless but affecting and sweet piece about a disturbing facet of international travel.
An Ex-Special Forces operative who now works security for pop divas and other luminaries, Bryan Miller (Neeson, in a growling, vengeful portrayal), under coercion by his estranged ex-wife Lenore (Janssen, playing the closed-minded mother who only wishes her daughter to get out and see the world), allows his daughter Kim (Grace, absent most of the picture but strong in the scenes she is in) to travel to Paris, France on vacation. His fears and worries are seen as paranoia by “Lennie” (as he used to call her) and Kim, who is an aspiring singer and an admirer of the very diva (unnamed, played by Holly Valance) whose life her father saved the night before she leaves with her friend, Amanda (played by Katie Cassidy, best known on a few episodes of 7th Heaven and Supernatural).
Kim and Amanda had secretly planned to follow the great Irish band U2 on their European tour, but get the opportunity to travel the world in a much different and dangerous way than simple road and airline trips.
Sometimes I just have to turn my brain off and enjoy the ride. I couldn’t do it in time to avoid the sentimentality of the first part of this movie, which goes a long way towards defining Bryan as very protective and loving of his daughter, and extremely skilled at protecting those whom he sets his mind on to protect. When he sternly promises the man in charge of kidnapping his daughter and her friend that he will find him and kill him, you really believe he can. He’s a forensics, SWAT and negotiator team all in one, though he more often chooses to negotiate with a gun or knife.
It almost seems too easy, the way Mills eliminates those who stand in his way. He can do almost no wrong, and even when it seems he does, he has a way of very quickly turning the situation to his advantage. He’s similar to James Bond, though with less diplomacy and more gunplay.
I give this movie 4 stars. No real reason to dock it, even though Neeson’s Special Forces buddies may have been a weak link; but they seem to know it and don’t show up again after the first act.<–>