Liam Neeson - Taken

STARS: LIAM NEESON, MAGGIE GRACE, FAMKE JANSSEN, XANDER BERKELEY, HOLLY VALANCE, KATIE CASSIDY AND OLIVER RABOURDIN.

DIRECTED BY: PIERRE MOREL.

RELEASED: 2009

RUN TIME: 89 MIN

RATED: PG-13

<MILD SPOILERS>

Taken, actually premiered in France way back in February 2008 and has already made over 66mil worldwide. Not surprising as the film takes place mainly in France. I was pleasantly surprised by Neeson’s performance as he actually pulls off his biggest action role since Batman Begins.

Taken, takes off in Hollywood where over protective father Bryan Mill’s (Neeson) is planning to visit his daughter Kim (Grace) on her 17th birthday. Things are distant between his ex-wife Lenny (Janssen) and his daughter as a long career with the CIA has caused their marriage to fall apart. Bryan hopes to make her birthday special as he gets her a karaoke machine to help with her singing career. His plan gets upstaged as her new father Stuart (Berkeley), gets her a horse. Feeling more depressed then ever, Bryan’s old partners urge him to take on some part time work as pro-talent security. He agrees and in the process of protecting rising star Sheerah (Valance), he saves her life. His colleagues are happy to see him back in action, as Sheerah personally thanks him with an invitation for his daughter to meet her personal singing coach. He plans to surprise Kim with the news, however she shows up at a lunch date with Lenny in tow. He then finds out that Kim only wants to go to Paris with her friend Amanda (Cassidy), as mom’s there with the release forms for him to sign. Bryan’s not happy as he only agrees to let her go if she stays in contact with him via a international cell phone he gives her. During the trip to LAX he finds out that’s she’s really planning to cover all of U2′s concert dates. Reluctantly he let’s her go but he’s not happy about it, and more suspicious then ever.

Upon arriving in France, Kim and Amanda are so excited, they clearly stand out as tourists. They meet up with a handsome frenchmen who they decide to share a cab with. He later invites them to a party, and asks where their staying. High on excitement, Amanda informs him that their all alone up on the 5th floor. Kim starts to get a little apprehensive as Amanda’s cousins have left for Spain. Amanda it seems, was lying all along so that Kim’s parents would allow her to go. Amanda really just wants to party and loose her virginity in Paris…

Things get ugly real fast. During a phone call check in, Kim see’s Amanda being abducted. Bryan instructs her to go into the next room and hide under the bed. She’s ultimately found as he hears the whole thing on the still connected cell phone. As the kidnappers heavy breathing comes across the phone Bryan offers him one chance to release her. If not he promises to personally find and kill him. The last words he hears over the phone are “Good Luck”…

With the help of his CIA colleagues and Stuart’s private jet, Bryan flys to France to save his daughter. What happens next is non stop action, as he makes contact with an old French Police ally, Jean Claude (Rabourdin). During the search Bryan uncovers more than he bargained for, as it seems some of the French police are aware of the slave trade and are actually part of covering it up…

Liam’s virtually unstoppable in this role, at times he reminded me of Daniel Craig, in Quantum of Solace. The sex slave trade that’s exposed is pretty disturbing yet it seems to fade into the background as Bryan goes through one bad guy after another. The activities that the slave traders are involved with lead the viewer to have “zero” compassion as Byran systematically kills them all, in pursuit of his daughter. Towards the end of the film I actually cheered at a few scenes.

One thing that really upset me throughout the film is the very fact that the film is rated PG-13. This film should be rated R as the subject matter and violence is very heavy. It seems like you can kill or portray women as sex slaves as much as you like as long as the word “Fuck” isn’t in the script. The film is somewhat predictable, however Liams performance makes it all worthwhile. I hope we see him in more action roles or maybe even in the next Bond film…