Taken (2008)

The Plot: While vacationing with a slutty friend in Paris, an American girl (Maggie Grace) is kidnapped by a gang of Albanian human traffickers intent on selling her into the sex trade. Now, her father, Bryan (Liam Neeson), a former soldier and extreme bad ass motherfucker must go to work on France with a pair of pliers and a blow torch to save her. With his best years possibly behind him, you would think that Bryan’s task may be more than he can handle, if so your dead wrong. Directed by Pierre Morel, this relentless action thriller also stars Famke Janssen.

The music was well done. There is some touching piano music in the beginning and then throughout the movie compelling the audience to share the emotion of a father whose daughter was taken. Random music that people play within the movie pops up here and there. Mainly the score consists of pulsating sounds that spike during high tension moments, and then during action scenes it changes to a fast paced orchestra score.

The cinematography was enjoyable to watch. Made me think I was watching a John Woo film. Great action shots and editing make the gun play and hand to hand combat look realistic by cutting the scenes just enough. The car chase scene was really choppy. I know that they were trying to make the audience feel distressed but the edits were way to quick to really enjoy it.

The acting was very believable and crisp. Famke played the perfect bitchy ex-wife, and Maggie Grace is a pro at crying and playing a younger girl. Of course Liam steals the show in this movie. I might be a little bias because I’m a huge Liam Neeson fan, but he does play the role so calmly that you can’t help but believe that he is actually capable of the things that he does.

The effects were pretty sick. They had your classic neck breaking, head slamming, shootings that we all love in our action movies. To compare them with effects in another movie, I would have to lean towards the Bourne series. This movie does feature one of the sickest tortures I have seen in a non-horror film in quite some time, if ever. I do not want to give it away…but you should check it out…I’m telling you.

Overall I really enjoyed this movie for what it was, a action/revenge movie with a decent budget. I’m sure there was a lot cut out of this since they kind of skip parts of him tracking down the kidnappers, but I was able to overlook that. I would suggest this film to any action fan…and especially anyone that has a daughter of there own. I don’t but ill tell you, I still took what this guy was doing personal.

4 Out of 5 Crom’s