Could have been a lot worse

Rating: 7/10 (28 November 2008)

I was interested of this movie for two reasons: Liam Neeson as a bad-ass and secondly if the what trailer promised was delivered - ruthless action using the idea "a preferably divorced cop/agent/criminal comes out of retirement for one last job/kill". The movie delivered both.
The action was pleasantly brutal in the vein of the newer Bond films, the classic Rambo style slaughter is done more low-key and maybe a bit believably: Neeson kicked butt mostly by doing karate chops to the throat which I can imagine is sufficiently painful and efficient - no face punching here, except if the said face is used to punch a wall or perhaps a car.
There was a short torture scene, although it was done by the good guy to the bad guy. Also, I liked how it was clear Neeson wanted his daughter back, period. There was plenty collateral damage and nod towards that a good guy is not exactly good all the time, not all people got what they deserved etc. I don't know how realistic the premise of sex slaves being auctioned was but at least it didn't revolve entirely around that.
I loved how the movie makers had realized 90 minutes is enough. If it is not, your action is not paced fast enough. The ending could have been much better (like, Liam shoots the last bad guy in the head, a scared look from the girl, cue end titles, sort of how French Connection 2 ends), especially how fast the action before that was. Now it was there as if the viewer would have cared about that annoying chick from Lost and her pops.
Some of the dialog was just awful. I don't know what it was but the short monologue by Neeson that was also in the trailer ("I don't know who you are" etc.) didn't work. Maybe he just doesn't have that something in his voice that would make that kind of stuff work. But in the context of the movie it worked well enough, since it's an action movie and of course describes the entire plot (for the trailer). The annoying chick from Lost was sometimes just terrible to watch, especially since she was supposed to be seventeen.
Final line: it's no Frantic (and I can't remember if it even was that good a movie) but worth wasting 90 minutes of your life. A good enough movie, nothing horribly annoying.