Taken

No one, and I repeat no one wanted to see Taken with me. There was zero interest among my friends or family members when it came out. As a result, I waited until I could rent a copy and watched it all by my lonesome.

In retrospect, I wish I'd gone to see it in theatres. The film is good, but boy would it have been fantastic on the big screen!

As with Star Trek, Taken is just a great action movie -- it's fun to watch, the plot moves along quickly, and there aren't many pesky subplots. Also (as with Star Trek), the sex/nudity is kept to a bare minimum; I didn't expect this, considering that the film concerns the sex trade in Europe. What's that, folks? Proof that you don't need extended shots of half-naked women to produce an enjoyable piece of cinema? Well, color me surprised. Frankly, I'm glad to see a turn away from the obligatory stripper sequences that have appeared in so many films (Armageddon & Lost in Translation, et al.).

There's a review of Taken over here titled "Father of the Year," which I think is apt; the main character definitely does a lot of kickin' ass and takin' names to find his daughter. Liam Neeson is, well, totally hot in his black bad-guy-killing jacket, and that's something I never thought I'd type. Neeson has always been a good actor, but I can't really think of a time that he was given the role of action hero. His performance as "concerned dad" at the beginning (one of the few parts of the movie where he's not trying to kill someone) was touching, and that juxtaposed with his "vengeful angel of death" attitude later was interesting to watch.

Overall, Taken was a nice change from Seraphim Falls, which I felt just tried far too hard to be intellectual. Taken doesn't try to be deep or metaphorical or anything other than a straight shoot-em-up movie.