I saw this action/thriller flick about a month ago and just rewatched it this weekend. Goddamn, what a surprisingly good movie this is. When I first saw that Liam Neeson was the "star" of this movie I wasn't overly eager to see it. I'm not a huge fan of him...but that could very well change after watching this movie. Liam is BAD ASS.

!!!SPOILERS!!!

The basic plot is fairly straight forward, Bryan Mills (Neeson) is a retired CIA operator who quit his job in order to be close to his estranged daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) who lives with Mills' ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and her new husband Stuart (Xander Berkeley). Stuart is loaded by the way and on Kim's 17th birthday, when Mills gets her a karaoke machine, he buys her a fucking horse.

Anyway, Kim goes off to Paris with her girlfriend (Mills isn't crazy about this but allows her to go after making her promise to call when they land and also call everyday). When they get to Paris, a young charming French guy shares a cab with them to their apartment (which is huge). We quickly learn that he's not as charming as we were lead to believe. When Kim doesn't call after they land, Mills calls her. While talking to her dad, men break into the apartment and attacks her girlfriend. Mills makes Kim run to the next room and hide under the bed. Then he tells her - and this is a powerful scene - that she'll be kidnapped in a couple of seconds and that he wants her to leave the phone on and scream out as much information about the attackers when they come to take her. Mills is forced to listen when her daughter is brutally taken. One of the kidnappers picks up her phone:

Quoted from Taken Mills: I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you. Long pause. Kidnapper: Good luck.

Dumb move, Mister Kidnapper!

After that Mills goes to Paris and, with the help of some of his former colleagues, tears Paris apart in his search for Kim. And like I said, he's bad ass - the way he extracts information would even make Jack Bauer queasy. I know the plot sounds a lot like a cheesy Steven Seagal flick, but it ain't. It's about an international trafficking-network, a very sobering and relevant issue (one of the scenes actually shows a very disgusting auction of young women - really really sick).

All in all, this movies isn't curing cancer in any way, but it's 94 minutes of damn fine entertainment that I recommend.

This sounds awesome and the trailer is really good. Is it in theaters?

~Zack~

Looks like it's going to be released here on January 30th.  Not sure if that's theater or dvd.

It was released in most of Europe in the beginning of 2008. According to Fox, who's distributing the movie in the US, it'll be released in theaters on 01 30 09.

There's a better quality trailer here: http://www.takenmovie.com/

I thought this film was...okay. But from the trailer I had hoped for something edgy, and what it really is, is a very by the numbers payback movie ridden with action movie clichés and some really shameful cross-media plugging via a cameo I won't go into.

The trailer shows the incredibly intense scene when she's taken, but if you think the rest of the film will be in the same uncompromising vein I think you're gonna be disappointed. Sometimes it wants to be The Transporter, sometimes 24, and while LIam Neeson and the girl from Lost are good, I thought the movie ended being kind of generic and uninspired.

Especially the crap VIP protection duty in the beginning where Liam averts an attack on a pop-diva from a crazed fan...doesn't have anything to do with the story...it's just an action scene thrown in for good measure...and it utterly fails to engage.

It feels like there was a good script in there at one point but it felt butchered from the studio's hand.

And anyone who listens to Mark Kermode's reviews every friday knows what the shout at the screen at the end:

"WHO'S DRIVING THE BOAT!?"

Check here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/entertainment/a2z/rams/taken.ram

Quoted from Death Monkey And anyone who listens to Mark Kermode's reviews every friday knows what the shout at the screen at the end: "WHO'S DRIVING THE BOAT!?"

LOL, I was going to post that myself but never thought anyone would get the reference. Nice to know someone else listens to the Good Doctor. My ritual every Saturday morning is listening to the show's podcast. Just about to listen to this weeks now actually, can't wait to hear what he thinks of Australia and Nicole "Kindling".

Anyway, I was surprised when I first read Sniper's review, I watched this a while ago and never liked it at all. Like Mark Kermode I found it hard to swallow, the idea that seemingly everybody in Europe is so corrupt and evil, the police are so inept that it takes an American to fly over there and save his daughter. The guy just runs round Paris for 90mins killing everybody he meets.

I agree with Sniper about the actual kidnapping scene, it was pretty well done and full of tension. But after that it just fell apart for me. I like Liam Neeson, I like Luc Besson and felt disappointed at the end of this film.

I am also confused as to why a French film, written by a Frenchman, directed by a Frenchman, would try to paint Paris in such a bad light and be almost a "USA saves the world" action movie. I would understand it more if there were any trace of this being a reflection on the world in general type of thing, but there is none. I would expect this type of movie from a big Hollywood studio, but Luc Besson? There was just no intelligence in this film at all. I honestly did not get it.

I wonder why it has taken so long to be released in the US?

Quoted from Murphy LOL, I was going to post that myself but never thought anyone would get the reference. Nice to know someone else listens to the Good Doctor. My ritual every Saturday morning is listening to the show's podcast. Just about to listen to this weeks now actually, can't wait to hear what he thinks of Australia and Nicole "Kindling". Anyway, I was surprised when I first read Sniper's review, I watched this a while ago and never liked it at all. Like Mark Kermode I found it hard to swallow, the idea that seemingly everybody in Europe is so corrupt and evil, the police are so inept that it takes an American to fly over there and save his daughter. The guy just runs round Paris for 90mins killing everybody he meets. I agree with Sniper about the actual kidnapping scene, it was pretty well done and full of tension. But after that it just fell apart for me. I like Liam Neeson, I like Luc Besson and felt disappointed at the end of this film. I am also confused as to why a French film, written by a Frenchman, directed by a Frenchman, would try to paint Paris in such a bad light and be almost a "USA saves the world" action movie. I would understand it more if there were any trace of this being a reflection on the world in general type of thing, but there is none. I would expect this type of movie from a big Hollywood studio, but Luc Besson? There was just no intelligence in this film at all. I honestly did not get it. I wonder why it has taken so long to be released in the US?

Yeah, I follow Dr. Kermode regularly, although he has liked some very peculiar films lately (Mama Mia, High School Musical 3 and now Twillight). But I watch it as much for the report between Simon and Mark as anything else. But he's getting kinda lazy with some of his reviews I think - Australia was good because he admired that Baz Luhrman put every kind of cliché about Australia into the film and at least it's better than a Michael bay film? That's not a reason! And Twillight, all I got from his review was that it was a superficial melodrama about annoying teenagers with uninspired dialogue and drippy charcters..."but it does what it does well"....well what is it it actually does then??

Still I'll forgive him, he's still brilliant.

As for the film itself, I didn't really find it to be racist as such, because I mean isn't most of the actual human trafficking in France run by eastern Europeans? If so, then it's really just the statistics that are 'racist' I suppose. But I agree that it was very clichéed and stereotypical, and the funniest thing about the fact that it was a European production about an American cleaning up and killing all the bad Europeans is that the 'American' in question is European and really struggled to sound American.

Quoted from Murphy The guy just runs round Paris for 90mins killing everybody he meets.

Have you ever been to Paris, Murph'? Trust me, I felt like doing the same thing when I was there

Like I said, this movie isn't Le Grand Bleu II. You know, you leave your brain on the sidewalk before walking into the theater and pick it up on your way out. But it's damn fine entertainment in my book.

Quoted from Death Monkey Especially the crap VIP protection duty in the beginning where Liam averts an attack on a pop-diva from a crazed fan...doesn't have anything to do with the story...it's just an action scene thrown in for good measure...and it utterly fails to engage.

That set up the ending with the singing lesson. Cheesy? Sure, but full circle.

Quoted from sniper Have you ever been to Paris, Murph'? Trust me, I felt like doing the same thing when I was there Like I said, this movie isn't Le Grand Bleu II. You know, you leave your brain on the sidewalk before walking into the theater and pick it up on your way out. But it's damn fine entertainment in my book. That set up the ending with the singing lesson. Cheesy? Sure, but full circle.

But the singing lessons had nothing to do with the story. It wasn't that it was cheesy, it was that they devoted the better part of 15 minutes of the film to set up a silly cameo. Trust me, there's no way there was anything about singing lessons in the original script. That's some executive going "Uhm, yeah, great script, really, we love it, very intense, but how about putting Holly Valance in the movie?"

The VIP protection detail felt like a rejected subplot from CSI: Miami or something...it wasn't as strong as any of the scenes in Paris, IMO.

Quoted from sniper Have you ever been to Paris, Murph'? Trust me, I felt like doing the same thing when I was there .

That's funny, yes, and fair enough, maybe you have got a point there. Though certainly not the whole of France, or the French, but maybe Paris, I will give you that. Maybe Liam is not that bad after all then.

Probably my favourite movie so far this year, but they could have easily have called this 24 the movie...lol, there were a couple scenes straight out of the show like where liam tries to get a guy to talk but instead of shooting him he shoots his wife, that was right outta day 5 of 24, i got a good chuckle out of that.

Liam does a great job and i think could be an action star.  i liked the locations, and the look of the film, it also has some good torture scenes, i think eli roth could learn a lot in how to film credible torture.  Very entertaining movie.

Quoted Text Mills: I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you. Long pause. Kidnapper: Good luck.

Now if this ain't ridicioulos i don't know what it is. Sure Liam Neeson is great actor, but this action flick is really overrated and stupid.

To quote Roger Ebert:

Quoted Text If CIA agents in general were as skilled as Bryan Mills in particular, Osama bin Laden would have been an American prisoner since late September 2001

You're just pissed Liam kicks Albanian ass  

Quoted from sniper You're just pissed Liam kicks Albanian ass

Not really no. I saw the original script and the guys are from Skopje, Macedonia. They must have changed them in the last minute.

The film sucks, even though i love Liam Neeson as an actor.

I'm looking forward to Taking Pelham 123, where Albanians will kick some serious ass alongside John Travolta.  

This movie was just okay. It has a ton of plot holes and implausible scenarios, but it's still an enjoyable Action movie.

If we're going for a bad-ass though, I'd say Creasy from Man on Fire (a fairly similar film) beats him.

--Julio