A pure popcorn, action feature.

Rating: 7/10 (28 February 2020)

This is a very hard one to review as I can see why it's loved by so many. On the plus side, it contains the swiftest direction by Pierre Morel and a production by the king of action films himself Luc Besson. The film seems to just breezes through the gears. Also the star Liam Neeson gives almost a perfect performance, as an ex C.I.A agent out to recapture his taken daughter. On the negative side, the plot is so far fetched you have to stifle the laughs and at many a point. The way the central character takes on (single handed), the most one dimensional Albanian gangsters is almost laughable; whilst (simultaneously) taking out the whole of the French Intelligence service. 'Taken' though proved to be both very successful and highly influential (spawning two sequels and countless imitators). On the downside, since the original 'Taken' Liam Neeson himself, has become more typecast than Daniel Craig as James Bond but the upside is of course, the most lucrative of acting roles.