MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

Taken

Directed by Pierre Morei.  Starring Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace.


Photo © 20th Century Fox
Movie Review by Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

Bryan Mills (Neeson) is a retired CIA operative with a lot of time on his hands. He’s said goodbye to a life of espionage so that he could move to Los Angeles to be closer to his daughter (and ex-wife).  (His marriage and family fell apart because of the amount of time he was away from home “on government business”.)

He’ll pick up the occasional part-time security job to work with his CIA buddies, but he is primarily concerned about being a better dad to his daughter Kim.  When Kim asks permission to go with a girlfriend to Paris, Bryan protests.  It’s a dangerous place for teenagers, after all. 

He finally relents, but gives Kim an international cell phone and makes her promise to call every day.  Sure enough, the first day the girls are off the plane their naïveté with a cute guy gets them kidnapped by Albanians involved in a white slavery business.  Before Kim is taken, she dashes off a phone call to dad, who tells her to leave the phone on so that he can hear the voices of her captors.  These few seconds of sound gives him enough data to hop a plane to France and get busy saving his little girl. 

The second half of this fast-paced movie is filled with car chases, fistfights, and a whole lot of shooting and killing.  Bryan always manages to be a step or two ahead of the bad guys, and he is a one-man army, able to avoid the bullets and serious harm. 

Taken is 90 minutes of mindless mayhem, classed up with the presence of Liam Neeson, an A-list actor.  The action scenes are filmed in the popular semi-documentary, fast edited style of the Bourne films.  While the movie is adrenalin charged, it is also exhausting to watch.  If your idea of a good time is relentless revenge, this movie is for you. 

Pitchfork Rating:
Three pitchforks (A father’s love for his daughter motivates him to kill and maim dozens of crooks, while destroying many vehicles and parts of Paris in the process; scenes of prostitution and drug use; some swearing.] Two halos (A father’s love for his daughter motivates him to travel overseas to find her.)

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