Taken

I’ve said it many times before, but I think it bears repeating that I’m a total sucker for a good revenge flick. I emphasize good because for every Man on Fire, there’s a watered-down thumb-twiddler like The Brave One. Revenge films have to walk a fine line between being ballsy and brutal, and having enough mass appeal to even be made in the first place. Since the revenge subgenre is so tried and true, it takes something special to stand out above the pack. (The apex of the genre, for those curious, will always be Death Wish.) Taken had the same generic premise as most others: guy’s mother/wife/daughter is kidnapped, guy goes on hunt to find loved one and save them. It’s not rocket science. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the film’s trailer, but the strong word of mouth it’s been receiving placed it at the top of my current must-see list. I should have know better than to doubt a revenge flick: a) starring an actor I like seeing kick ass (Neeson), b) written by Luc Besson; and c) that comes in at a tight 90 minutes. Taken doesn’t reinvent the cinematic wheel of vengeance, but it does beat it to a fine pulp.

Liam Neeson stars as Bryan Mills, a retired Black Ops soldier who’s trying to live the simple life and rekindle a relationship with his daughter, Kim. That, however, isn’t easy due to her mother’s (Famke Janssen) tenuous relationship with Bryan , not to mention her multi-millionaire stepfather (fantastic character actor Xander Berkeley) upstages him in every way. Kim decides to go with a friend to Europe to follow around U2, though she tells Bryan otherwise, and almost as soon as they arrive they are kidnapped by Albanian sex traffickers. So, naturally, Bryan hops on to the next flight to Paris to find the men responsible for kidnapping his daughter.

I’m glad someone finally decided to make a movie where Liam Neeson kicks major ass, because the guy is damn good at it. Neeson has always been a solid, dependable actor. You never hear “Liam Neeson sucks in this movie”. He has previously kicked ass before, in the unfairly maligned Darkman, but not like this. Here, Liam plays a guy with nothing else in life other than his daughter and a particular set of skills that give bad guys a major headache. What I enjoyed so much about his performance is that you never doubt for a minute that he won’t kick someone’s ass. There’s an intensely subtle moment where, right before unleashing a barrage of fury, Bryan quickly surveys a room full of men to determine how easily he can take them. It’s awesome because you know exactly what he’s thinking, and you know he can pull it off. I was reminded of Charles Bronson’s turn as a bare knuckle street brawler in 1975’s Hard Times; there’s never a moment in that film that you don’t think Bronson will steamroll everyone in his path. Bryan is very much a character cut from the same cloth.

A film this solid and tight is a difficult task for a 2nd time director to correctly pull off without subjecting the audience to lots of needless exposition, and Pierre Morel isn’t to thank for cutting out the fat. That distinction would go to one of the film’s writers, French director Luc Besson. Besson is a fantastic filmmaker and he’s responsible for some awesome films, such as The Fifth Element and Leon: The Professional. Working alongside Robert Mark Kamen, who has written some great films (Gladiator, The Karate Kid) and some total crap (Karate Kid 4?!?), Besson has crafted a simple, tight, effective thriller that wastes no time on bullshit and devotes almost the entire film to watching Bryan beat some ass. This is exactly the kind of kick-in-the-ass film that I love, and apparently it’s struck a chord with audiences, too, since the film is raking it in at the box office.

I want to point out that the version playing in theaters is a toned-down PG-13 cut of the film. The differences between this cut and the international cut are minor, mostly just extended bits during shootouts, fisticuffs and a slight twist on the electrical torture scene. I’d expect that version to show up on the eventual Blu-ray release, but the film’s impact is in no way diminished by having these scenes shortened.

Taken is a quick, hard-hitting film that doesn’t waste a lot of time. If you’re looking for some great entertainment, especially if you like revenge films, then you really can’t go wrong. There’s nothing particularly amazing that makes this film stand out above any other in the genre, but sometimes a film that dispenses with the bullshit and makes good on a promise of unholy vengeance is just what you want to see. The baby Jesus knows I do.