Entertaining no-brainer

Rating: 6/10 (27 January 2009)

The only reasons I'm reviewing this movie is its high rating on IMDb (8.0 as of January 2009) and the fact that it was made in 2008. "Taken" is definitely not worthy of that high rating as it is nothing special at all. In fact, this is just an old school action movie that could have been made in the 80's. I was expecting Arnie to show up at any minute.
In stead of Schwarzenegger Liam Neeson is starring, though. He plays a special-agent-whatever-kicker-of-asses whose daughter gets into the hands of evil Albanians. That's right: evil Albanians. Like in the 80's, the bad guys are just from some little country the audience knows nothing about, except that it's probably populated by EVIIIIIILLLL people.
Anyway, Neeson (I forget his character's name) is that typical father that only exists in Hollywood: He totally loves his daughter Kim and is always there for her, but his ex-wife just won't acknowledge all his love and concern, because of his absence in the past or whatever. Wifey has already found a new boyfriend, a rich guy who's able to buy Kim more expensive presents than Neeson... like a pony... a pony for a 17 year old-girl. Yeah, you go make sense of it.
Anyway, when asked to agree that Kim goes on a trip to Paris over the summer, Neeson in all his special agent-educational wisdom rejects his allowance at first knowing that the world is a bad place and not one for a 17 year old-girl and her 19 year old-friend to travel. However, in the end Kim and her mother bitch until Neeson finally lets his daughter go... Oh, boy, had they better listened to good ol' Spy Dad. Within the very first minutes in Paris the girls get abducted, of course, and Neeson has to go overseas to get them back.
"Taken" is full of clichés, from the wooden dialog, to the depiction of teenagers (17 year olds who love ponies, 19 year olds who have never had sex, girls who are fans of U2 and Holly Valance at the same time) up to a plot that just falls into place a little too neatly (much too neatly). The hero is a Dad with superpowers. Bullets magically miss him, while the ones coming from him hit their targets every time. We've seen this before and better BUT: It's a concept that never gets old, isn't it? And, well, the movie is very entertaining. It moves along quickly and the 90 minutes rush by in an instant.
"Taken" is not quite as stupid as "The Transporter", but then it's not choreographed as stunningly, either. It's just an old school action flick for anybody who's willing to turn off the old brain and watch Oskar Schindler kick some butt.