Taken - clichéd action movie

Rating: 4/10 (1 January 2009)

So how many of these movies have we seen? This theme of a middle aged man going in search of his kidnapped daughter has been done countless times. Therefore I was quite surprised to see this movie now considering this theme is so overused now.
There is not much deviation from the formula. The middle man aged man Bryan Mills(Liam Neeson) has just sent his daughter unwillingly to a Europe trip. His daughter gets kidnapped by Albanian traffickers and he sets out to rescue his daughter and kill the bad guys in the process. There is also the cliché of immigrant guys involved in prostitution. There is a message that young girls shouldn't go out to unknown countries, bad things are always right in the corner(does this rule apply to young boys btw?). In the end the character, as usual, faces the whole prostitution ring(all by himself) and rescues his daughter.
The more I see Famke Jennsen, the more I am convinced she shouldn't be acting in movies at all. She literally sleepwalks through her role. It is amazing her beauty is not interesting enough to keep me interested. I haven't seen any other movies of Liam Neeson but he seems quite forgettable in this. He does the standard tough guy role who doesn't need to show emotions much. The depictions of immigrants are quite disturbing, to say the least. The lack of action scenes is another problem. It isn't complex enough to be a thriller to be a psychological thriller type of movie. And it isn't fast enough to be called an action movie.
The rewatchability factor is non existent and it is not even worth for one watch. Okay for this genre but it is a reason why recent action movies haven't really caught the attention of the viewers. The lack of originality and the clichéd treatment is the main problem here.
Overall 4/10