You will be taken once the movie lands in Paris, and then it's breathlessly fast and violent.

Rating: 6/10 (7 February 2010)

Taken (2008)
Once the real plot kicks in and Liam Neeson goes ballistic (in his very icy, obsessed way), the movie takes off, too. With good reason. He's out to get his cute, almost innocent teenage daughter out of truly horrific danger. We feel for him, and we don't mind a lot of collateral damage in his wake. A lot.
Be prepared for lots of dead bodies, including men (all the deaths are men, now that I think about it) killed either gratuitously or with mindless vengeance. Neeson's character, ex-CIA man Bryan Mills, has the particular "skills" that give bad guys "nightmares." And he is skilled in a way even Matt Damon would love, just short of superhuman. (Now there's a film, Neeson vs. Damon, endless chases and almost-hits, totally breathless.)
I don't mean to make fun. Taken is terrific. At its best. The minute Bryan Mills lands in Paris, he is incredibly resourceful and tireless, and the writing makes every encounter a match of wits and nerve, and the editing makes every car chase truly dizzying. We really root for this guy, and cringe at the ugly, really awful underworld he finds himself deep in. And Neeson is also terrific. Besides being believable as an angry father, he's believable even as he pulls off the unbelievable feats of a super spy, showing presence and that brooding, charming depth he is known for.
The core of the movie--the Paris part--is less than an hour, in all, and the other plot, if you can call it that, is pretty lame. In fact, the opening scenes almost seem thrown together, either as an afterthought (to give the movie some heart) or as an edited down remnant, because it clunks along and has a whole series of logical gaffes, which aren't worth listing. Don't let this stop you. It's as if, when the girl and her friend arrive in the Parisian flat, director Pierre Morel suddenly shows up, too. Morel, in fact, is a cinematographer at heart, and that much is evident in the visual pizazz that keeps every scene popping. This is his second feature, and first in English, and we'll probably see more of his work, hopefully with a better writer in tow.