Taken (Pierre Morel) 2008

I read quite a few negative reviews of Taken but I didn’t pay much mind to them before coming into Taken.  I mean, as long as I get Liam Neeson f*cking up people’s sh*t I should be a happy camper.  Right?  Well, not exactly.  Neeson plays Bryan Mills a retired spy who quit his job to spend more time with his daughter.  Her daughter wants to take a trip to Paris who begrudgingly agrees.  His fears are soon realized when she is kidnapped by a group looking to sell her as a sex slave.

The action of the movie is strung together by a rather dull investigation by Bryan.  Bryan will send recordings and pictures to his agency buddies who will uncover ludicrous plot details by sound equipment and photo analyzing equipment that should exist.  The trailer would have you think Bryan is an expert at torture and that’s how he gets his information but that is misleading.  He only really does that once and the rest of the info he outsources to other people.  So those sections of the movie are rather slow because we really aren’t drawn into any logical investigation.

Much of the movie is action and I really can’t complain about it being bad or poorly done.  However, none of it is really innovative or stands out.  It is just…average.  There are fight scenes, but not as fast as Bourne.  There are car chases, gun fights, and a scene of torture, but nothing I can’t get from a really good episode of 24.  Liam Neeson does his best with what little he is given.  Although all he is really asked to do is have a stern face and grunt out some badass lines.

I can’t say this was a BAD movie or that I seriously hated it, but I felt the whole production was rather bland.  Everything was done well enough but nothing stands out as being particularly good.  I left the theater with a big MEH!  You might want to check it out when its an unlimited rental at Blockbuster, but don’t necessarily spend $15 bucks to see it in theaters.