There is nothing that can come between the love of a father, or a mother, for his or her son or daughter, and watching the movie Taken will prove, conclusively, that that is most definitely the case.
When a former “preventer”’s daughter goes off to France with her best friend and gets kidnapped from her Parisian apartment, the preventer must call on a lifetime of skills, experience, training, and sheer blood thirst to find her at any cost. On the way, he’ll run afoul of seedy Albanian slavers, crooked French cops, and the might of an Arabic sheikh as he does whatever it takes to recover his daughter.
For those of you who said, action movie, yes, you’re absolutely right. This is an action film with a whole lot of explosive force behind it, and it helps doubly so that the preventer in question is portrayed by none other than Liam Neeson. Neeson is a serious force to be reckoned with in terms of both acting ability and sheer presence. It’s Neeson’s performance that makes this movie so downright believable, and yet at the same time, so downright forceful. I’m seriously impressed by this man’s action chops, and putting him in an action movie is an excellent idea.
But at the same time, this isn’t just an action flick. It’s also a surprisingly satisfying crime drama, with even some thriller elements added for a little extra spice. Watching Neeson go off on his pursuit of his daughter is thrilling and engrossing, with virtually nothing that drags or seems extraneous. And better yet, watching Neeson go from doting father (when he brings that karaoke machine to his daughter’s birthday party, you’re feeling for the guy) to insane super secret agent killing machine, it’s a rather shocking change, but even the shock is still believable. They stole his KID, for crying out loud. You out there who are parents—try and tell me you wouldn’t go forth and do likewise if someone kidnapped your kid? Things like laws and ethics and human decency go right out the door when Daddy’s Little Girl has been abducted.
Most folks would like to think of themselves as compassionate, ethical folks who under normal circumstances would try not to hit a chipmunk while driving, but if you kidnapped their kid, and they found you, well, there are horror movies which would probably end prettier.
In fact, if anything, I felt that they were a little too subdued in a lot of spots. After all, when Neeson’s torturing a guy for information, he takes his time, but his final confrontation with that sheikh I mentioned earlier will be a lot more decisive, and a lot more abrupt.
That may be my only real complaint about Taken—the movie did such a great job of pacing throughout that, when the ending finally does show up, it feels less like an ending and more like they simply stopped. Almost like a clock ran out.
But still, there’s plenty to like about Taken, and plenty of reasons to make this Liam Neeson classic one of the movies on your list. It does action movie just as solidly as crime drama and thriller, and such a combination is too much to easily ignore.
Popularity: unranked [?]
