Give them heck

Rating: 8/10 (25 January 2010)

Preparing to see Mel Gibson's latest flick, which draws plot elements from 2008's TAKEN, got me thinking again about TAKEN. Liam Neeson, who is not the first person one thinks of as an action hero, plays an aging CIA spook whose daughter is kidnapped while vacationing overseas. Neeson immediately takes off after the bad guys and eliminates them one by one during his search. The movie is satisfyingly violent, although it was inexplicably trimmed for American audiences (go to youtube for a much grittier and more satisfying version of the electric shock interrogation scene). The fights are simply amazing, and Neeson looks pretty damn agile for an old hoss. He also gets to beat up on bad guys of several different ethnicities, including our pals from the Middle East. I hope the Gibson flick is half as good. It is rated R, and one can only hope it will be a hard R. If you see TAKEN, try to catch the European version.