These days, it seems hard to create a really solid, simple action flick. Not a big budget, special-effects extravaganza or a dense crime tale that examines the nature of good and evil, but a simple, gritty, kicking the snot out of the bad guys with no questions asked type of film. A lot of those types of movies made now are no-budget, direct-to-DVD flicks that are at best laughably bad, and at worst, completely unwatchable. Enter Taken.
Liam Neeson plays Bryan Mills, an ex-secret agent trying to re-establish a connection with his daughter. He's so desperate to do so, he lets her go to France for vacation, even though he knows that if she leaves the country she'll be in immediate danger. And wouldn't you know it, once she leaves the airport she almost instantly gets kidnapped by Albanians who want to sell her virginity on the sex market. That leaves Mills and his secret agent skills to find who took his daughter and rescue her before she's lost to human trafficking forever.
Even though the action is slickly directed by Pierre Morel and the stamp of French producer Luc Besson, the director of Leon: The Professional, is detectable throughout the film, which makes Taken more than just a disposable piece of entertainment is the determination in Neeson's performance. The lengths that he goes to take out the people in his path can be gruesome, and in some cases a little over the top, but Neeson sells every moment completely.
In terms of the film's violence, it should be noted that even though Taken is rated PG-13, the violence and depiction of modern human slavery are intense enough that it probably should have been rated R.
Taken is not a movie that requires a lot of discussion about why it's so enjoyable. It's slick filmmaking, filled with great stunt work, including some real fighting by Neeson. In a cinematic world where a lot of action is done with CGI, it's refreshing to see a movie that's greatest effect is an actor's determination.
eg973705@ohiou.edu
3 Culture
Ethan Goldsmith
26883a.jpg
Liam Neeson plays an ex-secret agent who tracks down his daughter
