He Just Happened to Have That in His Back Pocket

Rating: 5/10 (14 February 2009)

This movie borders between the absurdly funny and tiresome. While human trafficking is a very serious problem, this movie uses the issue to propel people into unbelievable car chases (see the movie Ronin), fight sequences that deliver a deadly blow in one karate chop and an action hero of the likes of Liam Neeson(?) where he knocks out all of the bad guys in the room Chuck Norris-style. Seeing this movie in the theater, you begin to get a taste of what is to come with previews of other movies before the feature starts. Each preview is more preposterous than the next.
Liam Neeson plays an ex-CIA officer who is pulled back into service to retrieve his estranged seventeen-year old daughter who has been kidnapped while in Europe following U2(??) on tour. When he finally does retrieve her he pulls out an IV bag and hooks it up to her. This scene prompted a grumpy old man behind me in the theater to say, "He just happened to have that in his back pocket!" Nowhere do you find absurd behavior more prevalent than in soap operas.
With all of the jumping, kicking, flying around and bullets, where are the female actors? Have we not reached an age where women are also the action heroes in movies? Would it not have been interesting to see the mother, an ex-CIA officer face down those bad guys? She would have really let them have it. So, is this a movie about human trafficking or action adventure? And why is it that all of the boys get to play with the cars and guns? I think you will know the answers when you see this movie. Take note, at the end of the movie, of the short, skinny bad guy dressed in a three-piece white designer suit sporting eyeliner because he is the real bad-a$$.