The Best Action Movie of the Year

Rating: 8/10 (5 February 2009)

The seventeen year-old Kim (Maggie Grace) is the pride and joy of her father, the retired agent Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) that left the secret service to stay near Kim in California. Kim lives with her mother Lenore (Famke Janssen) and her wealthy stepfather Stuart (Xander Berkeley); after her birthday party, she convinces the reluctant Bryan to sign an authorization to travel to Paris with her friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy). When they arrive, they share a cab with the stranger Peter (Nicolas Giraud) and Amanda tells to him that they are alone in Paris. When Bryan succeeds in contacting his daughter, she tells that criminals have just break in the apartment and Bryan listens to the assault. The girls are kidnapped by an Albanese gang of human trafficking. Bryan promises in the phone to kill the kidnapper of his daughter and immediately travels to Paris to find Kim and chase the criminals.
"Taken" is the best action movie of the year, and everything that I could expect from, for example, a 007 movie. The plot is predictable and full of clichés of the genre, with cars chase, explosions and lots of shootouts; but the story is highly entertaining and Liam Neeson is excellent in the role of a needy father and efficient agent. I did not count how many bad guys Bryan kills along the story, but I hope to see this character back in the near future in another adventure. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Busca Implacável" ("Implacable Search")