Brute-tastic delight

Rating: 9/10 (30 January 2009)

It has been a long time since we had a character like Bryan Mills, played surprisingly and convincingly by Liam Neeson in Taken. We have become a movie watching public which has been brain washed by the Bourne movies and to a lessor extent the dialog heavy action films of Tarantino that have come out lately. They give us 2 plus hrs of yakking, extraneous inner turmoil and brooding. Every now and then some action thrown in to keep us from falling asleep. We have been convinced that for us to feel for these men (and women), we must get inside their mind, we must see them hurt and struggle with the monster they are. It has been a long time, perhaps since the days of Segal (younger and thinner)hacking through guys like scissors through paper, that we had a an action hero who kicks ass and shows absolutely no mercy or regret and doesn't spend half the movie trying to reconcile the monster within. There is no time for such frivolity. Bryan has a job to do in Taken and all that brooding and reconciling can be done by others. Bryan only has 96hrs to get his daughter back or loose her forever. So he harnesses the power of the beast he has within him and God help anyone in his way.
Bryan Mills is a dad who regrets his time missed with his daughter, but doesn't sit around brooding on it. His ex-wife is now married to a guy with lots of money. She does everything she can to bust his balls. Bryan is pressured by his ex-wife into allowing their daughter to head off to Paris with a friend; this is where the real movie starts. She is kidnapped not long after her arrival and before we have a chance to blink, Bryan is in Paris, cutting a bloody path to find where his daughter is. He is told, most girls taken with the intent to sell them into slavery, are out of the country within 96hrs. There is no time in those 96hrs to worry about what might happen. He uses any and all means at his disposal to hunt down, kill, maim, torture, etc, those responsible for his daughters abduction.
The director Pierre Morel, who cut his teeth as the lens man on action films such as the first Transporter turns his star loose and Neeson gives a performance I didn't know he had in him. Written by Luc Beeson, the architect behind The Transporter films, has woven a very tight 93 minute film that doesn't waste time with extraneous brooding but fills every minute with adrenaline pumping action and revenge.
Great stuff!!