Taken

Reviewed by:
Eric Alt

Directed by: Pierre Morel

The Skinny: While traveling abroad with her best friend, a naive L.A. teen (Maggie Grace) is abducted by a sex slave trafficking ring. Too bad for them her father is not only a highly-trained ex-government operative who happens to be an expert in seeking and destroying, but he's also Liam Neeson.

The Good: After playing the mentor for so long, it's fantastic to see Neeson kicking ass and taking names himself for a change. His Bryan Mills is like an older Jason Bourne—a no-nonsense badass who will shoot, snap, or intimidate anyone who gets in his way. Once the kidnapping happens, the movie sets off running and rarely stops to take a breath. It's a nasty piece of work, but it checks off all the necessary thrill-ride boxes.

The Bad: The movie gets its wires crossed a little bit by trying to say, simultaneously, that Mills is both completely paranoid but also totally right. And early on, when it's revealed that Mills' retired former strike team consists of both John Gries and Leland Orser—how can the movie not expect us to want to see a prequel?

Oz Fest: The pop singer whose body Neeson has the extraordinary luck to guard early in the movie is played by Aussie hottie Holly Valance, she of the remarkably cheese-tastic (in the best way possible) DOA: Dead or Alive.

Theater, DVD, or TNT in Five Years? Go see this, for two reasons: 1.) Neeson kicks all kinds of international ass, and 2.) No way Paul Blart takes three weekends in a row. No. Way.

Check out our exclusive interview with Liam Neeson.