An action junkies fantasy

Rating: 7/10 (20 May 2009)

"Taken" - wherein a repentant father, played by Liam Neeson, is now trying to be involved in his daughter's life after many years of working as a kind of fixer in various shadowy government agencies - is abruptly forced to draw upon his numerous talents that generally involve very efficiently killing people when that daughter is "Taken" by Albanian flesh merchants at the beginning of her trip to Paris.
"Taken" might be considered a revenge fetishists' delight, but it is also something relatable to fathers (and moms too) who would not hesitate at all to do anything that was required to save their children. Though I clearly lack the hand-to-hand combat skills Neeson portrays in "Taken," as a father of three daughters I can quite easily relate to the drive and determination to do whatever it takes (no matter what) to go and save his daughter before she is literally lost forever to a perverse underworld of well-heeled, creepy sheikhs.
Breakneck-paced from start-to-finish "Taken" does not let down in the action and violence department. Neeson leaves many bodies in his wake as he tears, literally, through Paris, to get to the men who took his daughter. Brutal and decisive, Neeson is a machine, nearly maniacal in his single-minded pursuit to get to his daughter, no matter the cost.
Stylish and pretty, though somewhat muted (more "real" according to the extras on the DVD) Paris is the beautiful backdrop to the horrific underworld enterprise goings on. Penned by the great French auteur Luc Besson and helmed by a French director, Phillip Morel, the film does have a certain "foreign" feel and in fact was released in France before the US. Morel's history as a Director of Photography also gives the visuals their refined but also slightly gritty, rain-slicked feel.
While stylish and essentially perfectly composed as an action movie, "Taken" has no great message other than to say: Don't mess with my daughter, pal. It might serve to make us dads feel quite inadequate as protectors of our children. Don't know about you but I wouldn't feel comfortable stepping into a room of 7 Albanian criminals and waxing them all. In two moves I'd be dead meat.
Regardless, "Taken" is quite enjoyable, a full-throated action film, and wonderful to watch Liam Neeson in action.