Liam Neeson sells this pedestrian but entertaining action thriller

Rating: 7/10 (10 October 2014)

TAKEN is a simple action movie about a family man with "a particular set of skills" who takes down a sex trafficking ring in order to rescue his daughter after she is kidnapped while on holiday in Paris. While this could have gone straight to the bargain bin, what really sells this movie is Liam Neeson, who brings a everyman quality to his role as Bryan Mills. The production values by Luc Besson and director Pierre Morel are also worth noting, with just enough emotional content to make the story relatable and a kinetic style that keeps things moving along at a good pace. Generally speaking everyone gives a decent performance, but I thought that Maggie Grace was miscast as she doesn't look the part of a 17-year-old girl, and her acting is questionable at best. Story-wise, I did appreciate that the movie took time to establish characters and relationships before heading off into more standard action thriller territory but, that being said, it only taps into the basest of human emotions and tendencies. Only someone devoid of empathy wouldn't understand the sticky situation that the characters are put into. Still, despite the rote nature of the setup it works, and the latter two-thirds of the movie rarely let up. As far as the action is concerned, it is well-shot for the most part. Pierre Morel shoots the close quarters combat up close, but the editing isn't so bad that you can't tell who's fighting who, and the geography and shot compositions are decent. If there's one complaint I have in this area is a nighttime car chase which was perhaps a bit too chaotically shot/edited. Overall, this is a decent time-passer that has enough story and thrills to keep you interested, and the running time is only about 90 minutes so it never overstays it's welcome.