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Taken

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

As far as action movies go, we've seen a big drop in non-franchise movies for a long time now. There's been hits here and there, but there's also been a lot of bombs with terrible plotlines and terrible acting too. Taken is not one of those movies. It's a thriller/action movie that will leave you glued to the screen. Not just because of a solid amount of fight scenes, but because of why the main character is fighting in the movie.

What would you do if your teenage daughter had gotten kidnapped? What would you do if you'd been in the CIA doing some heavy stuff over the past two decades and this happened? Liam Neeson's character Brian  had his daughter Kim get kidnapped while she was traveling in Europe, he also just happened to be a retired member of the CIA and on the phone with her when it happened . From there Brian is pissed enough, but the desperation of the situation starts after he gets an analysis of the voice he talked to on the phone. That voice leads back to sex trafficking and Brian basically has 72 hours to find his daughter before she disappears forever.

Taken takes you on the father's desperate hunt to find his daughter and the people who kidnapped her. He goes through different channels of sex trafficking, exposing more and more of these horrendous situations for these girls.  All the while keeping the glued to the screen hoping that he'll find his daughter before it's too late.

One wouldn't immediately think of Liam Neeson as an action star, but really he was perfect for this role. The one thing that probably should be noted though is the editing work that needs to be done between the actor's work and the stunt man's work. With Taken it's about 95% perfect, except for the beginning of the movie. There's one part where Neeson is supposed to be climbing on a ledge... it's not buyable at all, but every other part of the movie, it's unnoticeable. That rough minute of stunt work and a weird campy finish are the only negatives to a movie that mostly works in spades.

With Taken there are several upsides to it. Neeson's performance. The different plot points tie together perfectly. But more than either of those two things, the ending of the movie makes you think about the issue the movie tackles. I'm not going to tell you when or where or even if Brian finds his daughter, but I will tell you that the ring isn't going to be brought down with what he did. And that leaves hundreds, possibly thousands of young girls in just as desperate situations as Kim.  So that leaves the question about what happens to all of these other girls. And that is the statement that Taken makes.