Taken

Liam Neeson stars in this international thriller which is meant to have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish but doesn’t quite manage to do this.  

When his estranged daughter is kidnapped in Paris, Neeson (a former spy) sets out to find her at any cost. Relying on his special skills, he tracks down the ruthless gang that abducted her and launches a one-man war to bring them to justice and rescue his daughter.

Liam Neeson isn’t the first person who springs to mind when you think of an action flick but he manages to act the part well in this flick.  It turns out that he’s quite good at the action bits but unfortunately the script and plot don’t manage to keep up with him.  

 

The story of Taken feels very clunky, it just seems to be a movie of convenience.  Liam warns his daughter of the dangers of scary Europe, and lo and behold, he’s right and she gets kidnapped just like every American girl who comes over does.  Luckily this time though Liam’s an expert in tracking and hurting people, oh and he also knows someone with a private jet so has no problem getting there straight away.  Also the daughter loves singing, oh guess what? Liam manages to become best mates with a famous singer too.

As action movies go, it’s Ok but it’s not a patch on the latest Bond movies or any of the Bournes.  

Also, I’d just like to ask a question that Mark Kermode also posed on the Radion, “Who’s driving the boat?”. If you watch this you’ll know what we mean.

DVD Extras

-Extended ‘harder’ version of film

-The making of the film

-The premiere

-Inside Action (multiple featurettes)