Taken (2008)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2008
	Director: Pierre Morel (Banlieue 13)
	Actors: Liam Neeson (Star Wars Episode I, The Grey, Batman Begins), Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen (The Faculty, X-men 1-3)
	Country: F
	Genre: Action, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 13.09.2017, inflight entertainment, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: While on a trip to Paris, 17-year old Kim (Grace) is kidnapped. Her father (Neeson), ex-CIA, will do everything to come and get her.
Review: The Luc Besson production that launched Liam Neeson (then 55) into a new carreer as kick-ass retiree action hero, and into movies like the sequels Taken 2 and 3, Non-Stop, The A-team... As often in Besson's productions (see The Transporter), Taken talks to the basic moviegoer in us that wants to see an efficient and well-executed revenge story on-screen, like we were getting in the 80's (with Charles Bronson in the Death Wish series for example). We want to see some bad guys' asses kicked! Well, we are now in the 2010's but the recipe still works: a tense father-daughter relationship, despicable bad guys, an exotic setting (well, as much as Paris is for Americans, the target audience of the French-produced movie), a race against time, an investigation under duress, and most importantly a driven character seeking revenge and administrating it violently. In the same style but more realistic and less entertaining you may want to watch Death Sentence with Kevin Bacon. I have to admit that I fell for it and enjoyed watching Neeson's character leading his own investigation, breaking bones, pressuring human-trafficking (= very despicable) suspects with nails and bullets and driving like a Madman through Paris while getting closer to his daughter. Quite a nice movie to let off steam. Surpisingly the sequel was also good, but not the third movie. A TV-series now exists.
Rating: 7 /10