|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
DVD Review: Taken By Kim Sabshin  |
| |
Regardless of time or place, moviegoers know what to expect from a shoot-‘em-up thriller: in-your-face action. As long as the bad guys get put into their place, all is well. Some directors specialize in movies that make you think, while others are more suited to ones that keep you on the edge of your seat, dying to know what happens next. With his blockbuster Taken, it is clear that French director Pierre Morel falls into the latter category.
Taken stars Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills, a retired CIA agent who is estranged from his 17-year-old daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), a fact that his ex-wife, Leonore (Famke Janssen) frequently reminds him of. Kim asks for her father’s permission to go to Paris with her friend, and Bryan reluctantly agrees. Both girls are kidnapped and sold into a foreign prostitution ring, prompting Bryan to go to Paris and find his beloved daughter at all costs.
In typical action-flick style, viewers will often need to suspend disbelief: one man takes on a hive of dangerous criminals, dodges gunfire in superhuman fashion, and still emerges relatively unscathed. Also note that this movie will not win any awards for dispelling stereotypes, from the fact that most of the villains look like “typical terrorists” to the very idea of foreign traffickers waiting to abduct naïve American girls.
However, Morel makes it clear that this is Neeson’s film, and the movie effectively showcases his talent at representing anger and brute force as a father turned vigilante. The sex traffickers fall like dominoes and Bryan even tortures one of their ringleaders in a scene that viewers might find particularly disturbing. Although the film is rated PG-13, the amount of violence may make some parents reconsider letting younger children see it.
The film’s short length leaves little room for other actors. Generally, this is no major tragedy. Grace is convincing as a naïve teenager at the beginning, but her character’s abduction obviously cuts her screen time. Janssen is forgettable as a snobbish, too-lenient mother who disappears from the film while the ex-husband she guilt-trips saves their daughter’s life.
On the other hand, this also creates a fair amount of plot holes. Without spoiling the film for those who haven’t seen it, suffice to say that Morel chooses to leave a lot of questions unanswered, particular in terms of what happens to secondary characters who are interesting, but apparently not worthy of further development.
Overall, Taken is a fast-paced movie with no lack of suspense and a middle-aged protagonist who takes on bad guys as well as, if not better than, younger counterparts in other films. Astute viewers will likely be bothered by the plot holes. Even so, the linear nature of Morel’s film allows him to devote more screen time to what action-film fans generally expect and want to see: a lot of gunfire and fistfights.
Rating: 3.5/5
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|