Taken: Movie Review
Liam Neeson is an Unstoppable Force on the Loose in Paris, Reviewed!
Jan 31, 2009
There's been a quiet little trend developing of late whereby A-list film stars decide to drop the big-budget blockbusters and Oscar-baiting dramas and start blowing bad guys apart in grimy vigilante flicks instead. In 2007, Jodie Foster shot just about every gang member in New York with The Brave One, closely followed by Kevin Bacon making life hell for a group of white supremacists in Death Sentence. Next up is Taken, which sees multiple award-winner Liam Neeson unleashing a world of pain on a European sex-trafficking network after his daughter is kidnapped in Paris.
Taken: Storyline And Set-Up
After a slow introduction, Taken explodes at about the half hour mark when spoilt-but-cute Kim Mills (Lost's Maggie Grace) is dragged from her hotel room by thugs while on a backpacking trip to Europe. Unfortunately for the kidnappers though, her father Bryan (Neeson) is a retired paramilitary Officer and he's prepared to do just about anything to get her back.
It shows quickly too. Bryan has barely arrived in Paris before causing a pile up at the airport and battering two luckless goons to pate. From here he doesn't slow down for a second and Taken becomes a marathon of bone-breaking, head-snapping, machine-gunning violence. The film may feature a storyline heavily influenced by the true-horrors of the illegal sex-trade but it's an absolute blast. When Neeson confronts a gang of East-European traffickers in a dilapidated apartment block and proceeds to batter seven shades of sambuca out of them, audiences are more likely to cheer him along than weep at the sight of abused young women lying stoned in the adjacent rooms.
Oskar Schindler's Gonna Mess You Up
What's most surprising about this is just how good Neeson fits the vengeful action hero role. This is a man with Love Actually on his CV after all, but he brings the ruckus with the best of them. His acting chops also make him a somewhat more powerful figure than your average six-packed pretty boy and he emanates barely restrained, fatherly rage throughout.
The rest of the cast meanwhile appear and disappear so quickly they hardly make an impression. Famke Janssen turns up just long enough to burst into tears and the villains are dispatched in such rapid succession that when Bryan finally confronts the End Of Movie Boss, he's only been in the film for about two minutes. Indeed, the only other real star is the fight choreographer, who turns Neeson's numerous scraps into a constant melee of Jason Bourne-influenced chaos. His hands move like lighting and crack like thunder, this is fighting which looks and sounds like it really, really hurts.
All of which adds up to make Taken into a surprisingly fun little action movie, but definitely one where you feel a bit bad afterwards. This could have been a serious, eye-opening insight into the darkness of the Trans-European underworld but its far more happy when staring down the gunsights. Definitely a lot dumber than it'd have you believe, Taken at times feels like The Transporter with the sun turned off, but it's still great fun watching Liam Neeson stomping all those bad guys underfoot.
