Straight from DVD: Taken

In honor of the DVD release of the biggest butt-kicking film bonanza of 2009, here’s a re-post of my review of “Taken” from earlier this year.

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Liam Neeson and Taken bring to life a parent’s worst nightmare. It’s also a stoic reminder, that if  ever in such a situation, it’s beneficial to have the skills of a world-class intelligence operative.

Taken, or rather it’s working title, “Liam Neeson kills a******* and royally f**** up Paris,” isn’t a revenge flick per se, more of the man-on-a-mission or man-wronged variety. The fun comes in watching the protagonist inflict damage, and in Taken, there is a much fun to be had.

Neeson plays a retired “preventer,” as he describes it to his 17-year-old daughter, while driving her to the airport for a jaunt to Paris. Upon arriving, the daughter and her friend are marked by a point man for a Albanian sex trafficking ring. The kidnapping plays out in real time over his daughter’s cell phone, as dad gives her advice. You’ll seldom find a more riveting scene. The director wisely keeps the camera on Neeson and films his anguish and reaction – after all, the movie is about him, his reaction and finally, his response. The call sets up up other scenes in the movie, including the film’s most memorable.

Neeson could have played Bryan Mills as a vengeful, emotional wreck. Instead he has the anguish of a wronged parent, but the focus expected with his “particular set of skills.” Those skills lead to a memorable speech on the problems of torture in third-world countries with unreliable power grids.

The movie is not politically correct. Mills, when posing as a bureaucrat seeking shakedown money, has the race card played on him by a bunch of inhuman Muslim pimps. The movie infers much of France’s current immigration situation and the problems that arise. It is a harsh depiction of bureaucracy’s willingness to tolerate evil if it can benefit.

But all of that is coleslaw to Neeson’s steak. Sure, being a covert agent makes you tough, but there is no greater bad ass than a father scorned. Neeson vows to tear down the Eiffel Tower. It’s the only thing left standing.

The beginning sets the tone, but is slow to move., playing more like a drama about a single father, battling for time and love with a mother who went for more affluent aims her second go around. Then the world is torn apart and things get kicked into gear.

Shaky cam appears, but not to the point of vertigo like the Bourne flicks. No strange angles, just straight up in the fight scenes and some of the most satisfying action to hit the recent cineplex.

Famke Janssen plays the ex-wife, who is determined to turn her daughter into the next Paris Hilton, while Neeson plays the more grounded dad, who clashes with mother and daughter both. He knows the importance of rules and discipline in the harsh world, something Janssen’s character ignores. Much like typical horror flicks and their judgment of fornicating teenagers, Taken has its own set of lessons to teach. Want to talk that daughter out of the trip to Europe? Not to hang out with strange guys? The inherent evil of touring with U2? Taken will do the trick.

Maggie Grace, playing a few years younger than she actually is, is the ever-bubbly stereotyped teenager and doesn’t show much in her performance. She should wisely stick to the Maxim Hot 100 list.

The movie unmasks the seedy European sex trade, where girls are kidnapped, drugged and treated more like machinery than prostitutes. It’s a sickening display that wrenches the heart. Justice is a word seldom used outside of tax raises nowadays, but Mills deals out loads in response. It’s refreshing to see it in the proper context, not littered in some putrid sense of nuance. You feel for Mills but take great pleasure in what he’s dispensing.

Pierre Morel, whose last big feature was Banlieue 13, benefits greatly of not having the affectations of typical American directors.

For those sick of the self-aggrandizing, angsty Bourne movies will find Taken whets the appetite. It leads to the utlimate question of whether Bourne got it wrong going with Matt Damon and not a more mature, less metrosexual actor like Neeson. Taken will give you the answer.

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