Quickcard Review Taken

Directed by: Pierre Morel Cast: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen Running Time: 90 minutes Rating: R

Plot: A former spy (Neeson) must dust off his old skills when his daughter (Grace) travels to Paris and then gets kidnapped into the sex slave industry. Who's it For? Those who can get past some bad acting, and throw away one-liners will be tickled pink ... wait, that's not manly enough ... they'll be tickled blood red. The action is quality and intense.

OVERALL

Do you want to know how to truly enjoy this film? It's going to be hard, but totally and completely worth it. You must skip the first 20 minutes, and it would be a good idea to leave 10 minutes early as well.

The screenplay is co-written by Luc Besson and you can see his Transporter taint all over this. There are missteps like Kim (Grace) literally running/bouncing/skipping with excitement in every single scene she's in before the kidnapping. But almost all of that can be forgiven once the heart pounding moment of Bryan talking his daughter through her kidnapping on a cell phone. As soon as that happens, it's just like Jason Bourne has aged, had a kid, and doesn't have time to be nice about getting her back.

Bryan is capable of anything, which means the film had no boundaries. And whenever Bryan's in a kitchen, pay attention, that's when things get really interesting. Neeson does a great job here, even though it looks like he can't run/kick/dive like Matt Damon or Tom Cruise.

It's like the 80s action flick is combined with the 00s. The good and the bad. But again, if you want to avoid the bad, time it out in the beginning and then make sure you leave once the characters leave Paris. If you follow these simple steps you'll think you've found the best action flick of 2009. But since I didn't do that ... Final Score: 6/10