Taken

This movie scares me away from dating girls. Let's just say I find a nice, intelligent dame who really likes me for me. We hit it off and we're really digging each other. Then she invited me to meet her parents. What the hell am I supposed to do if her Dad is anything like Liam Neeson in Taken? It's these kinds of movies that make me think I'm going to be alone for the rest of my life. Do you honestly believe I could defend myself from a 6'4" maniac like Neeson's character? He'd break my neck in 47 different ways, although one way would suffice.


Taken is about a former soldier of fortune/spy/CIA agent/killing machine (Liam Neeson) who finds himself tracking down the European traffickers who kidnapped his daughter in Paris. Liam is like a bloodhound, once he has caught onto the scent of his prey, he goes after them...and then brutally kills them.



If I was a vulnerable girl being taken hostage by Eurotrash smugglers, I would want Liam Neeson as my Dad too. Neeson plays his role with a splendid realism. This role is especially difficult for him because his character has a dual personality. On one hand, he is trying to be a protective father and save his child. On the other hand, he wants to absolutely destroy anything that comes in way of that goal. The divide between the two personas is clear at certain points in the movie. For instance, he catches up to the French crook who sold out his daughter in the first place. Once he gets the information he needs, the crook ends up dying by Neeson's hand. He's a father first, warmonger second. But Neeson gives a hell of a performance. His facial features give off a sympathetic vibe and a certain calmness. It gives the audience the feeling that everything will turn out alright because Liam is on the job. He doesn't exude cockiness, he emits sureness.



As far as plots go, Taken is pretty basic. Daughter gets kidnapped, Father goes looking for her, father kills a bunch of dudes, father rescues daughter. While most of the story was predictable, Taken made up for its expected behavior with intense action. Even in the first scenes of the movie where we learn how down-on-his-luck Liam Neeson is, already he is defending celebrities from murderous fans. The real intense action begins in the makeshift brothel where the Eurotrash gangsters hide their prisoners. Liam offs a few Albanians before driving away in a well choreographed escape scene.



"I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you". Jesus christ, if I ever heard those words coming from an angry father, I'd do the job myself. After seeing how Liam treats his own prisoners in the movie, it's safe to say that my way would be alot less painful. But Taken tells a whole lot more then just blood and violence. After layers and layers have been removed, Taken really tells how important the relationship between parent and child is. It tells its audience what lengths parents will go to when it comes to the safety of their kids. Now, I don't think it's saying that every mother and father should receive Black Ops training, but you get my point.