Review of Taken (2008) by Chads. — 31 Jan 2009

On what was supposed to be a routine detail assignment, Bryan Mills(Liam Neeson), recently emasculated by a bout of birthday present one-upmanship, gets one ball back after he successfully defends a pop diva from her would-be assassin.

He gets the other ball back when Kim(Maggie Grace) is kidnapped by a sex-trafficking ring, in which this former spy, to his good fortune, gets to reassert himself as the alpha male in his daughter's eyes, should he afford her the opportunity to ride the horse that trumped the karaoke machine.

Jokingly referred to as Rambo by a friend, the name not only suits his one-man army stronghold tactics, but the filmic context in which he does battle, as well. There's a war in France, a war against the sex industry, that surreptitously makes reference to the Indochina War, in which France and Vietnam are forever intertwined.

As Ted Kotcheff's "First Blood" was a wish-fulfillment movie about saving POWs, "Taken" also serves the same function, since the filmmaker, like the men who helmed the Rambo franchise, puts things into order by means of reductionism.

In stark contrast to "Taken", there is Lukas Moodyson's fatalistic worldview of the same topical issue, the sobering "Lilya 4-Ever", where a Polish girl gets sexually exploited with no hope for a familial savior to emancipate her.

For all its slick pacing and snappy action; in other words, its entertainment value, there's a distinctly unpleasant air to this whole enterprise, since "Taken" seems to be predicated on the father getting his ego back, in deference to the pain and humiliation of indentured women.

His daughter's kidnapping rejuvenates him; his sac is restored to full capacity. Bryan now seems ready to f*** the horse Kim's stepfather rode on. "Taken" is a revenge fantasy against ex-wives who remarry richer, more accomplished men.

Kim's mom(read:"the bitch") is punished for letting their daughter go globe-trotting in Europe.