Review of Taken (2008) by Rudy M — 19 Oct 2015

I like Liam Neeson. He's a legend. In 'Taken' he plays a retired CIA agent who travels to Europe and relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris. If you've read that plot, you know what happens. I don't have to spoil the ending. It's predictable stuff.

Is this movie bad, then? There's certainly some bad stuff here. Luc Besson, who rose to fame with La Femme Nikita, Taxi and The Fifth Element in the 90's, is responsible for the writing here. And I don't know if it's his script or the acting by Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen, but these female supporting characters annoyed the hell out of me. They were bland, predictable, unlikeable and badly acted. I like cookies, but cookie-cutter emotions do not go over well with me.

Neeson is better, but only marginally. He's my new favourite James Bond. If you've ever wanted too see Oskar Schindler or Qui-Gon Jinn punch the throats of countless Albanian criminals, then go see this movie. He performs his rampage well, but it's all --again-- too predictable and too convenient. You can see stuff coming from miles away.

Again: is this movie bad, then? No. For some reason it stays entertaining for most of the 93 minutes, even though you know how it's going to end and it looks more like a tv commercial than an action movie. With a return of $226M on a $25M budget, you could say that the movie did well. That's why there's a 'Taken 2' and a 'Taken 3'. The second one I've seen, it's more of the same. The third I have yet to see.