Taken
Director: Pierre Morel
The quiet Irish actor Liam Neeson doesn’t often get a chance to go on an extended tear, but he really busts loose in this bracingly effective thriller.
Neeson is Bryan Mills, an ex-CIA “preventer,” who has recently moved to Los Angeles from Virginia to be more of a dad to his 17-year-old daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace).
The action begins when Kim and her pal Amanda (Katie Cassidy) travel to Paris on vacation, against Bryan’s better judgment, and are immediately kidnapped. Bryan learns from his former CIA pals that the girls have been snatched by Albanian pimps, who seek slave prostitutes.
But Bryan, a professional who is the Tasmanian Devil of trackers, tells the kidnappers (via Kim’s purloined cellphone): “I will look for you. I will find you. And I will kill you.”
The bodies stack up like jets at a busy airport. The pace is frantic, but you never once doubt Neeson as action hero in this role. At 56, he’s more than got the chops.
Extras include an extended cut with commentaries by director Pierre Morel, among others.
