Taken

Taken (2008)
Directed by Pierre Morel
Starring Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Leland Orser.

Saw this movie in theatres last year and just watched it again on dvd, what a treat. Morel knows how to direct action, his style is raw-edgy and abrupt. This director doesn't cut around the action, he shows the fight with great choreography, stunt work and a moving camera.

The story is simple; a pretty American student and her best friend take a trip to Paris to follow U2 in concert. Her nervous father Neeson doesn't want her to go, she is only 17. Her mother and wealthy step-father want her to go. Neeson is over-powered and gives in. The girls get tricked at an airport in Paris and kidnapped by Albanese Human Traffickers forcing them into the sex slave trade. The girls only have a 98hr window before the chances of them being found alive again disappear.

Neeson plays the lead girls' father, an ex CIA paramilitary operative who puts his skills to work hunting down the men who kidnapped his daughter and rescuing her. His daughter calls him as the kidnapping goes down and the limited scraps of information he hears on the call - the accents, his daughters descriptions of the men as she hides under the bed etc - are all Nesson needs to piece together a plan.

Nesson travels immediately to Paris and recruits an old friend in French Intelligence to help locate the Alabanese gang neighborhoods. He travels into the underbelly and carves a trail in blood and broken bones that eventually leads to his daughter, he discovers her best friend dead from an overdose. The French Intelligence officer gets in Neeson's way and double crosses him, but Neeson makes it to his daughter as she is being auctioned off. He gets caught but manages to escape and kill the kidnappers and save his daughter.

The action is top notch and the performances are taught and realistic. Neeson is a great actor, he embodies strength. When he says to the kidnappers in this movie "I will find you, I will kill you.." we believe it and know that he will. It's great to see an action film with a kick ass super-dad fighting for the life of his daughter. In the end Neeson's connection to his daughter is strengthened. Great action, simple story, well directed, shot and edited.

This is a must own DVD.