Movie Review - "Taken"
By Skip Tucker
http://www.skiptucker.com
Liam Neeson plays Bryan Mills, an ex-spook who’s retired and moved to Los Angeles to reconnect with his 17-year old daughter (Maggie Grace). Constantly one-upped by his ex-wife (a haggard-looking Famke Janssen) and her new beau (he buys his daughter a karaoke machine for her birthday; the new boyfriend buys a horse), he reluctantly agrees to allow her to go to Paris with her friend – on the condition that she call him every day. On their first phone call (which he has to initiate), he hears her being kidnapped by evil Albanian sex traffickers, whom he vows to track down and kill.
Neeson has been (in no particular order) a Jedi Master, an industrialist savior of Jews during the Holocaust, a pioneer in sex research, Batman’s mentor, a Scottish Robin Hood and Aslan, the Great Lion of Narnia. But in “Taken,” Neeson brings the house down and the body count up as he races against a 96-hour deadline to rescue his little girl.
Sure, the acting a little over the top and the plot is a bit thin (bordering on anorexia, actually) – but who cares. “Taken” is a pure popcorn flick.
You want a full bang for your buck? “Taken” delivers in spades with a great hero, some real nasty bad guys and edge-of-your-seat action. It’s not just an adrenaline rush; it’s a shot of epinephrine directly into the heart.
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