Director: Pierre Morel
Cast: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Leland Orser
Country: France
Rating: Unrated
Run Time: 93 minutes
In today's day and age of action cinema, bad ass action icons are no longer the money makers they used to be. General audiences have drifted towards big budget special effects heavy properties like Transformers, The Avengers, and The Fast and Furious films. The old icons of the 80's no longer pull in box office dollars like they used too. Most of the new films of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger don't even break even with their budgets. However, one French action film in 2008 seemed to prove that the action icon was not dead yet. Pierre Morel's Taken proved to be a huge hit with audiences as it made $226 million off of a measly $25 million budget.
Besides being a very dramatic, action packed, and body count heavy action film, Taken's key ingredient was star Liam Neeson. At the time of Taken's release, Liam Neeson was not typically known as an action star. Even though he had dabbled in action films like Darkman, Star Wars, and Rob Roy, those were just a few action films amongst Neeson's many dramas, romances, and comedies. But Taken seemed to sky rocket Neeson to action icon status. Since Taken, Neeson has starred in numerous action films including Unknown, Taken 2, The Grey, The A-Team, Non-Stop, Walk Among the Tombstones, and the eventual Taken 3. Liam Neeson helped make Taken a better film by bringing his kindness, charm, and Oscar nominated acting chops to a Steven Seagal / Jason Statham-esque action film produced and written by Luc Besson.
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| Neeson brings the pain in his breakout action film. |
Taken has a fantastic and basic premise that attracts both general audiences and die hard action fans. Bryan Mills is an ex-CIA agent who has quit his job in order to live closer to his daughter. Due to his many years of service, Mills grew distant from his family and eventually lost both his daughter and his wife. Now all alone, Mills makes every effort to reconnect with his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) and his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen).
When Bryan's daughter goes off to Paris with a friend for vacation, she is quickly kidnapped by sex traffickers. Mills than sets out to Paris to track down the men who took his daughter and rescue her before she is lost forever. In Byran's words, "I will burn down the Eiffel Tower if I have too!"
What works so well for Taken is that it has a basic father/daughter premise that immediately draws you in. No offense to Jason Statham and Steven Seagal, but Liam Neeson comes off better in a film like this because he is such a fantastic actor. Neeson brings an incredible warmth to this film that makes me cheer for him. I want Bryan to reconnect with his daughter so badly because he is a good hearted man who wants to make up for his past mistakes. The film takes this story one step further though by having Kim get kidnapped and sending Bryan on a plane to Paris to kick some major butt. Now the film is a story all about what a father will do to get his daughter back from cruel men. This is a premise that any action or non-action fan can get behind because we get to see a father beat down tons of henchmen and bad guys in the process of trying to rescue his poor daughter. Kudos to Luc Besson for crafting a basic yet engaging action premise.
Bryan Mills is one of the great cinematic action characters like Casey Ryback in the Under Siege series, James Bond in the James Bond series, Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible series, Indiana Jones in the Indiana Jones series, John McClane in the Die Hard series, or Paul Kersey in the Death Wish series. Mills has many great characteristics to him that make him a unique bad ass. I love Mills' meticulousness when it comes to wrapping a present for his daughter. He spends extra time pressing down on the paper to make sure that it wraps perfectly around the square box sized present. I also love Mills' sacrificial nature of quitting his job just so he can live near his daughter to make up for lost time. Neeson knows that he could be off helping the country and making money but chooses to reconcile with his family after so much damage and hurt. How can you not love this character?
It also helps that Bryan Mills is a certified bad ass. Liam Neeson did all of his own stunts for the film and it certainly shows. While the shootouts never reach a John Woo (Hard Boiled, The Killer) level of excellence and the fight scenes never reach a Yuen Woo Ping (Kill Bill, The Matrix) level of perfection, all of the action scenes are just impressive enough to wow any action fan. Neeson brings a hard hitting level of realism with his neck hitting, gun firing, and knife fighting skills. The action scenes aren't shot too terribly but they aren't majestic either.
It's worth noting that Liam Neeson doesn't kick any ass until 40 minutes into the film. I know that is a long wait for some but the dramatic build up makes it all worth it. Once Neeson hops in a taxi cab and starts beating the crap out of a human trafficking spotter, it's non-stop thrills from there. It's important to mention that you must watch the unrated cut (the original French cut to be exact) because the film contains far more violence, gun firing, and a more graphic torture scene. All of these additions push the film into the range of an "R" rating and distant it from its tame "PG-13" Bourne and Bond counterparts. While the film is not exactly "R" rated, the unrated cut restores enough numerous blood spurts and neck snaps to appease even the most hard core action fan.
When Bryan's daughter goes off to Paris with a friend for vacation, she is quickly kidnapped by sex traffickers. Mills than sets out to Paris to track down the men who took his daughter and rescue her before she is lost forever. In Byran's words, "I will burn down the Eiffel Tower if I have too!"
What works so well for Taken is that it has a basic father/daughter premise that immediately draws you in. No offense to Jason Statham and Steven Seagal, but Liam Neeson comes off better in a film like this because he is such a fantastic actor. Neeson brings an incredible warmth to this film that makes me cheer for him. I want Bryan to reconnect with his daughter so badly because he is a good hearted man who wants to make up for his past mistakes. The film takes this story one step further though by having Kim get kidnapped and sending Bryan on a plane to Paris to kick some major butt. Now the film is a story all about what a father will do to get his daughter back from cruel men. This is a premise that any action or non-action fan can get behind because we get to see a father beat down tons of henchmen and bad guys in the process of trying to rescue his poor daughter. Kudos to Luc Besson for crafting a basic yet engaging action premise.
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| A Good Day to Die Hard's Radivoje Bukvic fires a gun at Neeson. |
Bryan Mills is one of the great cinematic action characters like Casey Ryback in the Under Siege series, James Bond in the James Bond series, Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible series, Indiana Jones in the Indiana Jones series, John McClane in the Die Hard series, or Paul Kersey in the Death Wish series. Mills has many great characteristics to him that make him a unique bad ass. I love Mills' meticulousness when it comes to wrapping a present for his daughter. He spends extra time pressing down on the paper to make sure that it wraps perfectly around the square box sized present. I also love Mills' sacrificial nature of quitting his job just so he can live near his daughter to make up for lost time. Neeson knows that he could be off helping the country and making money but chooses to reconcile with his family after so much damage and hurt. How can you not love this character?
It also helps that Bryan Mills is a certified bad ass. Liam Neeson did all of his own stunts for the film and it certainly shows. While the shootouts never reach a John Woo (Hard Boiled, The Killer) level of excellence and the fight scenes never reach a Yuen Woo Ping (Kill Bill, The Matrix) level of perfection, all of the action scenes are just impressive enough to wow any action fan. Neeson brings a hard hitting level of realism with his neck hitting, gun firing, and knife fighting skills. The action scenes aren't shot too terribly but they aren't majestic either.
It's worth noting that Liam Neeson doesn't kick any ass until 40 minutes into the film. I know that is a long wait for some but the dramatic build up makes it all worth it. Once Neeson hops in a taxi cab and starts beating the crap out of a human trafficking spotter, it's non-stop thrills from there. It's important to mention that you must watch the unrated cut (the original French cut to be exact) because the film contains far more violence, gun firing, and a more graphic torture scene. All of these additions push the film into the range of an "R" rating and distant it from its tame "PG-13" Bourne and Bond counterparts. While the film is not exactly "R" rated, the unrated cut restores enough numerous blood spurts and neck snaps to appease even the most hard core action fan.
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| Neeson guns down a lousy henchman. |
There are two action scenes that really stand out to me in this film. The first is when Bryan Mills visits a house filled with sex traffickers. He plays it cool and pretends to be in control of a satellite that is watching the men and forces the men to pay him money in order for him to look the other way. After he has the men pay, he shows them a card that is written in Albanian. When he asks one of them to translate it, the man states, "Good luck." This is just how Mills heard an unknown kidnapper say "good luck" to him on the phone when his daughter was kidnapped. Neeson immediately smashes the man's head into the table and proceeds to kill every man in the house. It's an awesome action scene and makes great use of knives, human shields, and Neeson gunning down bastards dumb enough to take him on.
The other standout action scene is the big finale on the boat. Bryan tracks down his daughter's kidnappers to a large boat floating down a river in Paris. He works his way through the boat taking down as many henchmen as quietly as possible. However, he eventually has to break out the guns and a fantastic shootout ensues. There's some great stuntwork here. My favorite is when Neeson jumps over a couch and fires from below it to take out a guard. There's also a great action beat where Neeson grabs a guard's MP5 and turns it around and fires it through the door into the guard. The action choreographers and screenwriters of Taken were smart to incorporate various action scenes that range from a car chase in a construction sight, a fight scene in a house, a fist fight in a basement, and a shootout on a moving boat. This way, the action is never boring and no scene ever feels exhausting or tiresome.
The most infamous scene in the film is when Bryan picks up the phone and speaks to his daughter's captor. Liam Neeson delivers a chilling and bad ass monolouge that is one of the greatest lines in bad ass cinema. It's more like a paragraph than a one liner, but it's completely unforgettable. In the words of Neeson, "I will look for you. I will find you. And I will kill you."
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| These guys picked the wrong dad to mess with. |
In today's day and age of lengthy films and over long run times, Taken is a breath of fresh air. Clocking in at only 90 minutes, Taken is incredibly brisk and will be over before you know it. I think that Taken is the last truly great EuropaCorp action film. Since Taken, EuropaCorp's quality output has drastically decreased. Their newer films (Transporter 3, From Paris With Love, Taken 2, Colombiana, Lock Out, 3 Days to Kill, etc) are usually low grade to middle grade action films that wish they were as fresh and exciting as older Luc Besson / EuropaCorp productions like Transporter 1 and 2, District B13, Taxi, and Unleashed.
I also have qualms with the fact that we don't see Bryan Mills save any prostitutes other than the ones that lead him to his daughter. Mills could at least alert the police to save these poor girls or to their whereabouts. This especially bugs me at the end of the film when Neeson finally reunites with his daughter on the boat. Even though all of the bad guys are dead and his daughter is in his arms, there are still two other captive girls whose fates are left unexplained. Did Neeson end up saving these girls or were their fates left unexplained due to the film's weak editing? Little things like this heavily affect the movie for me because the film took the time early on to show just how meticulous Bryan Mills is when he wraps a birthday present.
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| Neeson takes cover behind a poor car. |
Even though Taken is not a perfect action film, it is an absolutely awesome one and one of the best contemporary mainstream action films I have seen. Taken is a lot like Die Hard because a lot of non-action fans love the film. This is mostly due to the relatable father / daughter aspect of the story. We don't have Bryan Mills' bad ass skills but we do have the love and care for our daughters and family the same way that Mills loves and cares for his daughter. I think Taken is an excellent screener for father's day if you ask me.
Taken is a solid action film that catapulted Neeson to action icon status overnight. The film benefits from engaging drama, good performances, solid action scenes, and a brisk run time. Neeson proves himself to be today's box office king as far as action icons come. I highly recommend the unrated cut of this film and hope that all action and non-action fans check the film out!
Rating: 9/10 - A rare mainstream action flick that is both fantastic and rewatchable.
Franchise:
Taken (2008, dir. Pierre Morel)
Taken 2 (2012, dir. Olivier Megaton)
Taken 3 (2015, dir. Olivier Megaton)
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