Really Stupid But Fun As Hell

Rating: 8/10 (4 February 2009)

Stupidity never stopped Rambo from being entertaining, even in the latest installment when Stallone's a wrinkled old man. In Taken we have the hilarious premise that old fart Liam Neeson can karate chop his way through an international sex slave ring without getting so much as a bruise. Guess what, it works. They did a good job of finding a stunt double that looks like Neeson because the action flows flawlessly and there are some really good John Woo moments here. There aren't many surprises, no plot twists, just a father shooting, stabbing, blowing things up and generally kicking ass in search of his kidnapped daughter who is on her way to Hostel Part 3, ala Mel Gibson in Payback. The fun is in how they don't hold back. It's a total riot to see Shindler mercilessly killing anyone who gets in his way with the emotion of the Terminator in a quest toward the completely improbable goal of finding one teenage girl in the midst of all of Europe. It's simply satisfying to see the bad guys get what they have coming. Granted, this is a really dumb movie, but even a dumb movie deserves an eight when it achieves in the goal of entertaining.