Adam Kuhn & The Movies: Taken
Synopsis: Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is a retired CIA agent desperately trying to spend more time with his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), after being away from her life for so long. Divorced from his wife, Bryan is finally starting to reconnect with his daughter when Kim decides to visit Europe with a friend. Bryan soon discovers that rather than visiting museums and exploring Paris, Kim will be following the U2 tour across Europe. Having traveled the world, Bryan warns against the dangers of Europe, but concedes and lets Kim take the trip with a few stipulations: she must call him every night to let him know that she is safe.
Kim neglects to call Bryan after landing in Paris and Bryan quickly becomes worried. Bryan calls Kim to find out that her friend Amanda lied about staying with cousins in Paris and that Kim and Amanda will be staying in the apartment alone. While on the phone with Bryan, things quickly deteriorate when Kim spots kidnappers abducting her friend Amanda and Bryan knows she is next. While still on the phone, the kidnappers soon discover Kim hiding and take her. One of the kidnappers picks up the phone and Bryan gives him a choice: hand over Kim or be killed.
My Take: I enjoyed this movie and liken it to a Jason Borne film, but with a more straightforward plot. Unpredictable with plenty of twists, you’ll be entertained throughout the 94 minutes of this film. There’s plenty of action, however; it is well balanced with the film’s plot.
Liam Neeson is pretty bad-ass in this movie. His calm demeanor and smooth diction is perfect for the role. There isn’t a a whole lot of “acting” to be seen, but what’s there is very well done. There’s plenty of action and the fight scenes are relatively believable. I liked the plot – while I won’t say it’s original, it’s very well thought out and refreshing compared to so many of the other ‘abduction’ movies.
My Beefs: I don’t have many with this movie, but one thing I did notice were the car chases. There were too many of them, and they seemed sort of unnecessary. Also, I think the key to a great film is the soundtrack. Movies like Jurassic Park, the Bourne Identity, Ocean’s 11, they all have fantastic soundtracks. This movie doesn’t necessarily compare to them, but the soundtrack is merely mediocre – the movie needed that little bit extra to be very good and I think it was missing that in the music department.
Kuhnometer: 8 / 11
Trailer:
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