Not the most creative film out there, but definitely worth a watch.

Rating: 7/10 (20 June 2012)

There seems to be a trend in recent years for elderly action stars to revisit characters from their past; be it the upcoming "Dine Hard" (where a geriatric Bruce Willis is living a care-free life in a care- free care home, spoon fed all his meals. Until he realises generic terrorists are purposefully sabotaging Meals on Wheels) or "Indiana and the Quest for the Adult Nappies" (where Harrison Ford realises that having an irritating Shia LaBeouf as your son isn't great when it comes to choosing a care home).
Anyway, I digress. Taken turns this trope on its head, in having the aged Liam Neeson only joining the action genre in his old age. Taken also manages to avoid all of the clichéd plots that other action movies spew out, such as an elite special forces soldier's daughter being kidnapped and him going on an international rip-roaring revenge rampage. Oh wait, that's the entire plot. When his daughter is kidnapped in France, by Eastern European sex traffickers, Neeson heads to Paris to f**k sh*t up for an hour and a half. Of course, this being an American film, the Big Bad must ultimately be brown, so it's lucky Neeson's (I'm making no attempt to pretend I actually know his character's name) daughter is being bought by a Saudi Sheik.
Whilst the plot is terrible and a soggy retread of Die Hard and other classic action films, Taken does provide some amazing action sequences and harrowing torture scenes. Neeson excels, managing to be far better than the script should allow him to be.
Whilst not exactly an Oscar winner, Taken manages to be great in its own right, and it's quotability and enjoyment factor lead to what has shown itself to be a cult classic, and a great piece of pulp fiction.