Taken

2/14/2009

I watched Taken on a Saturday afternoon, after I had heard good things about a movie I otherwise probably would have skipped, at least at the theater. I liked the edge that this film possesses, along with Liam Neeson's character, a retired government worker. I guess the lack of language kept this movie at a PG-13 rating, because the very straight forward violence and adult thematics, in my opinion, made up for a rather clean script. Using his skills as a former government "Preventor," Neeson sets out to kill the man responsible for kidnapping his daughter, who was on a trip to Paris with her best friend. Once overseas, the movie turns from a drama about a man trying to rekindle a lost relationship with his daughter into an full-blown action film. The flow of the action scenes were catchy and thankfully, I never had the feeling that I was watching a movie that I had seen before. Unfortunately, for all of the reasons that I enjoyed the edgy "do exactly as I say" action, I thought the ending turned back into a little bit of Hollywood and was a little disappointing. All in all, a good flick that was worth the matinee price.