Title: Taken
Director(s): Pierre Morel
Screenwriter(s): Robert Mark Kamen & Luc Besson
Released: 2008
Runtime: 1h 32m
● Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) has retired from his espionage/military career. He wants to rebuild a relationship with his estranged teenage daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) who goes on a trip to Paris. She is abducted by Albanian human traffickers but has a chance to speak to her father on the phone. Bryan then tries to find his daughter in the narrow timeframe he has.
● The premise simply plays on the audience’s abhorrence of human trafficking, a convenient way to make Bryan blowing away the baddies satisfying to watch. Arguably too simple a plot as there is a wider network which Bryan mostly does not deal with. Without unrealistically and cheesily taking down the entire network, the plot could get Bryan more involved which makes it a little more complex and provides more action.
● In any case, a decent action film with good pacing. Also nicely shot and edited with good sound. It is no surprise that it has spurred clones and derivatives.
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This mini-review is part of the collection for Taken clones and derivatives.
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