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Taken

Taken (2009)

January. 30,2009
|
7.7
|
PG-13
| Action Thriller

While vacationing with a friend in Paris, an American girl is kidnapped by a gang of human traffickers intent on selling her into forced prostitution. Working against the clock, her ex-spy father must pull out all the stops to save her. But with his best years possibly behind him, the job may be more than he can handle.

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Reviews

SlyGuy21
2009/01/30

While I can understand people liking this, and I can appreciate the effort, this just didn't click with me. Some parts I liked, Liam Neeson can be intimidating, and some of the action scenes are good, but the movie never really hits a stride. The plot's basic, it's not meant to engage you, so I went into this with my brain off, expecting to have a good time. The whole movie was marketed as this tough action-thriller, but it's actually pretty slow. There are quiet moments, then an action scene, but they're not really integrated well. It feels like the action scenes are there, just for the trailer shots, not because they're needed, if that makes sense. Also, I get the feeling this was originally rated R, and edited down to a PG-13. I say that, because people are shot, and no blood is shown, also the camera man has a seizure during these scenes and never directly focuses on anything. It's disorientating, and takes away from the only action the movie has. The climax is good though, it's probably the most well done scene in the movie, and it's only 90 minutes long, but there are a lot more movies that I can watch instead of this.

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Alan Smithee Esq.
2009/01/31

This movie single handily solidified Liam Neeson as one of the best action leads in modern films. He expertly handles the drama and intensity of the story as well as the phenomenal action sequences. He's done action before this and after this but this is the only must see. It's a very re-watchable movie with unnecessary sequels, just stick with the original.

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The Hateful Citizen
2009/02/01

A father who is on the phone with his daughter when she gets kidnapped? Why not ? But when the father is a former agent of the American secret services played by a Liam Neeson without pity, close to everything to find his daughter, it becomes interesting! Throughout the film, we focus on Bryan during his fight against Albanian pimps, adhere to his fight, his unorthodox methods, even if he puts all Paris to sack. We are with him in his fight and we follow him in scenes of actions well done, not too disproportionate, just what it takes. One of the reproaches I would make to this film is that it is a little too short for my taste, I would probably have liked a few tens of minutes more. This film deserves a 8/10! I was taken by the action!

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Leofwine_draca
2009/02/02

Written by Luc Besson, who's responsible for just about every decent French action flick in the last decade, and directed by Pierre Morel who also directed DISTRICT 13, there was no real chance that TAKEN wouldn't be a decent thriller. It's a lean, mean movie, pared down to the essential elements and while it would be wrong to go in thinking of this as an epic, it's very good for what it is. TAKEN is essentially a revenge film that never shies or veers away from the main narrative thrust, which is that Liam Neeson must find his kidnapped daughter before she's sold by sex traffickers.The film is heavily influenced in both direction and style by the BOURNE movies, which is no bad thing as those films are among my favourites. There's a focus on realism throughout as well as a gritty edge that sees Neeson taking no prisoners in his search for his missing girl. Neeson's not everybody's first choice as an action hero but he's actually pretty good in the role – never for one moment do you not believe that he's capable of what he performs here. He's one of the screen's hardest good guys as of late.I guess you might say the simple story is pretty predictable, but the story is never the strong point in these films anyway. Criticism has been levelled against this movie, claims of racism, of it being another variant of the old "America's good, foreigners are bad" xenophobia, but these critics are looking too hard. TAKEN wants to be a straightforward action flick, with plenty of thrills and spills, and it achieves its aims admirably. 2008 has been a pretty decent year for action flicks and this comes second to only RAMBO in terms of tension, suspense, and excitement.The action scenes are well-handled in an over-edited way, similar to the ones you'll find in Bourne and Bond these days. Neeson battles an absolute ton of bad guys in set pieces that happen so quickly they're blink-and-you'll-miss-em. There are the requisite car chases, shoot-outs, and martial arts battles, as well as explosions and torture. It may not be art, and it may not be original, but I loved it anyway.The movie actually gets better and better as it progresses; time is taken out to get to know the characters before plunging them into darkness and then the tension continues to ratchet up every few minutes until it's at breaking point. Kudos to the filmmakers for not shying away from the violence, which is strong throughout, although the film never dwells on it. A vein of black humour also helps immensely in this slick-but-rough action gem.

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