Taken - Review

Director: Pierre Morel
Writers: Luc Besson/Robert Kamen
Starring: Liam Neeson
Runtime: 91 minutes

I've been keeping my eye on this movie for a while. It was released overseas a long time ago. Unusually, it is now being released in North America after its run in the rest of the world is already over.

Since February is the dumping ground of lame films, I have to figure that this flick was being saved by the studio to get them through the winter blahs. I hope that was their strategy and they weren't trying to bury this movie, because it's very good.

I managed to catch it a couple of months back, and two thoughts struck me: "US and Canadian critics will hate this movie. Audiences, on the other hand, will love it."

This ties in with a conversation I had with a friend a few weeks ago. We were chatting about Charlie Chaplin for some reason and he said, "What's with this year's awful, depressing movies?"

I asked him what he meant and he gave a small rant about the Great Depression, and pointed out all of the hilarious comedies and spectacle movies from the '30s. I got his point. In tough times, studios shouldn't be releasing movies that make you feel even worse than the nightly news. People want to go to movies that will do what movies were always intended to do: entertain.
Taken is an entertaining picture. It's great. It is the best action movie I have seen since The Bourne Identity, and it easily trumps the last Bond picture, Quantum of Solace.

I think the critics will hate Taken because it is what it is: an action movie. Being critics, they will judge it for what it is but miss the point completely: "mindless" will probably appear in a dozen of their reviews. Yes...and? It's an action movie.

The plot is linear and stripped down. There's no fascinating sub-plot, no mystery, no breathless fade-to-blacks that leave you pondering the meaning of life. Critics hate that. Nothing to talk about. The guy who designed the poster for Taken gives the whole game away. He writes a paragraph over Liam Neeson's gun-toting body: "I don't know who you are, but if you don't let my daughter go, I will find you. I will kill you."

When you read that on a movie poster, what are you expecting, Schindler's List II?

Liam Neeson plays Bryan. He's an ex-CIA guy who has a lovely daughter that wants to go to Paris. Reluctantly, he agrees to let her go, as long as she stays in touch the whole time. She lies and says no problem, then doesn't call, causing him a sleepless night. When she finally calls, it's to tell him that she's fine and...wait...there's someone in the apartment...they just grabbed Amanda...there's three or four of them...dad, what do I do?

Bryan knows the drill. He tells her very calmly that they are going to take her.

That phone call scene is very good. Neeson and Maggie Grace (as his daughter Kim) play it perfectly. It's got better drama than any of the big dramas out this year.

I've always thought Neeson was an excellent actor, but he's now proven that he can be a believable middle-aged action hero, reminiscent of Harrison Ford. Sure, the movie has the usual fare of bad guys with bad aim, and one car chase, but Neeson kicks ass in this movie. I mean no-holds-barred ass. If you're feeling bad about your job, or your wife's giving you a hassle, or you think the politicians are jerks, or your mortgage is crap, or whatever the hell, then this movie is right up your alley. It is a revenge flick with a capital R.

The direction is good. You can even focus on Neeson's face for more than two seconds during a fight scene. Director Pierre Morel and screenwriters Luc Besson and Robert Kamen move it from A to Z in 90 minutes, but it feels more like five.

This is the first movie in a year that I made a point of seeing twice. In fact, given the choice between all of the Oscar nominees for "Best Picture" and Taken, I would see Taken a third time at the drop of a hat. If you're in the mood to see a good actor kick the hell out of the bad guys, you should at least see this movie once. Don't think, just enjoy.