Satisfactory enough old fashioned action thriller

Rating: 7/10 (15 May 2011)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is a former Special Forces operative who now ekes out an existence providing private security to special events and people. His estranged daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) wants to take an around the world trip with her best friend, but Bryan has reservations. These prove to be valid when Kim is kidnapped by an unidentified gang, and he hears it happen over the phone. He then begins a desperate trek around Paris trying to find out who the gang are, what they want and where his daughter is before it's too late.
This short and sweet little action film seems to be trying to re-write the conventions for the genre. To wit Neeson's father figure, remaining impeccably calm as he hears his daughter being kidnapped over the phone, telling her to hide (even though she gets taken anyway!) and then telling the kidnappers even more calmly '...if it's money you want, I don't have it. What I do have is a set of skills I have acquired over many years, skills which make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let her go now, this'll be the end of it. I will not hunt you. But if you don't, I will hunt you, I will find you and I will kill you', as you do. With 'good luck' as his reply, he has all the ammunition he needs to set off on his quest to find his off spring and punish her assailants. Neeson suits the action hero role perfectly, and brings that slight bit more gusto and dynamism to what is essentially a straight to DVD action film on the big screen, while director Pierre Morrel uses his home city effectively as the backdrop for the agoraphobic angst the desperate but clear headed father must be feeling as he prowls through such a big place for his most loved one.
It's generic, it's predictable, it's ridiculous, but it's just enough fun to make it an above average action film. ***