Excellent violent fun

Rating: 7/10 (20 July 2009)

I knew this would be good when I saw Luc Besson's name in the credits. For those who don't know, he wrote and directed La Femme Nikita, one of the great Violent Entertainments of all time. I enjoyed Taken. Imagine the daughter of a 50-year-old Jason Bourne being kidnapped, and the pure shitstorm which would descend upon the perpetrators, and you'll have a pretty good handle on this story. As others have mentioned, the plot is simplicity itself: Liam Neeson is going to get his daughter back, and no thing or individual will prevent that. There is, of course, the usual need for suspension of disbelief—in the first gunfight, our hero has inconsistent marksmanship; aboard the yacht at the end it's one bullet, one kill—but hey, that's film making. Viewers whose expectations are within the Revenge Mission scope of this film will enjoy it thoroughly. Anyone looking for social depth or complex character development will be disappointed.