Liam Neeson Movie:

		List Price: $39.99		Label: 20th Century Fox Salesrank: 211 Released: May 12, 2009
		Our Price: $14.54
		Used Price: $13.76
		MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:

Genre: Action/Adventure
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 12-MAY-2009
Media Type: Blu-Ray

Description of Taken [Blu-ray]:
What could be a skillful but ordinary action flick gets a surprising emotional heft from the presence of Liam Neeson as the hero. Bryan Mills (Neeson) has given up his career as a spy to form a relationship with his estranged teenage daughter--but when, on a trip to Paris, she's kidnapped by slavers, Mills uses all his connections and skills to turn the city of lights upside down and rescue her. Like most of the movies that writer/producer Luc Besson has a hand in (such as La Femme Nikita, The Transporter, Unleashed, and many other French action movies), Taken drips with lurid violence (a bit toned-down to get a PG-13 rating, but there's still plenty of it), deranged sentimentality, and stereotypes of all kinds. But this doesn't stop his movies from being effective thrill-rides, and Taken is no exception. Taken pays just enough attention to the illusion of procedure--making it seem like Mills knows all the right steps to track down his daughter--that the movie cheerfully seduces your suspension of disbelief, despite many plot holes and scenes where Mills doesn't get scratched despite bullets flying in all directions or pretends to be a French policeman despite not speaking French or even adopting a French accent. What holds it all together is Neeson; his gravitas and emotional availability make his character--the usual action fantasy of impossible competence and righteous fury--somehow seem real and relatable. --Bret Fetzer

Stills from Taken (Click for larger image)

Taken [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Excellent
2009-12-25 - I expected this movie to be so so, but it was in excellent condition. I will buy all my movies at Amazon.com The movie is action, action, action!!!!!!!

Excellence in Action
2009-12-19 - Liam Neeson doesn't have any qualms about portraying a man with a 17 year old daughter that is striving to spread her wings. Divorced, hurt for having not spent enough time with his only child, he portrays a caring man that will do anything for her. She's his world and, at every available opportunity, he attempts to find the way to prove it to her.
Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson's character) worries, as parents do. When his daughter takes off to Paris with a friend, he does the normal call-me-when-you-get-there, etc. As a typical teen, she forgets, too involved in the wonders she has planned with her friend. The one phonecall she does answer is the single thread that her father has to hang onto in order to save her, knowing she has been taken.
This is a high action, seat gripping action drama that I enjoyed thoroughly. Neeson's character is as ruthless as any parent would be in that effort to save their child from a fate worse than death

One of my favorites!
2009-12-18 - I usually dislike movies with suspense, but this movie rocked! It helped that you just knew Liam's character was going to kick some butt. The movie has no dull parts and I would recommend it to anyone.

"Your arrogance offends me."
2009-12-18 - Liam Neeson does an unexpected about face from his usual touchy feely roles and makes an inhuman turn for the best in this ultraviolent yet strangely touching action film.

Brian Mills is an ex-CIA agent/ex-Marine/ex everything, I guess, who has spent most of his life doing very undercover dangerous James Bond things. At the beginning we see a lonely man who, to all outward appearances, seems very gentle and attempting to make up for lost time with his gorgeous daughter, Kim. Having spent his life dealing with dangerous people and preventing "bad things" (where was Brian Mills on before 9/11? Couldn't a guy like this grab Osama Bin Laden in five seconds?)

Anyway, against his advice, his daughter goes to Paris with a few of her friends. Brian is concerned because he is aware that there are people who are into selling young girls into a slave trade for high class criminals. And, of course, his daughter gets kidnapped.

Neeson does a superb job of turning within the course of about fifteen seconds from a concerned father into a walking, barking, unstoppable killing machine. The reason the film is believable is because of Neeson's blank facial expression, his ability to switch off his emotions in a deadly second, and his ruthlessness. Whoever trained the actor in whatever martial art/self defense skills did a good job. And Mills is no angel. There are scenes in which he way too far. There is nothing sentimental about it. He wants his daughter and nothing going to stop him unless it's a very well placed bullet.

Though some of this might strike the viewer as a bit far fetched, it is Liam Neeson's performance that makes it worth watching. A riveting, chilling movie.



Big Jake in the 21st century
2009-12-13 - Liam Neeson becomes a one man avenging angel when his daughter is taken by sex slave traders in Paris during the 21st century .

For 20 minutes we establish Neeson as a spook + who loves his daughter but was never there, his wife is has remarried a very rich man and he can't compete with him. The daughter wants to take a trip overseas with a friend, her father objects but relents with conditions that she ignores.

Lucky for her she keeps the phone he gave him and at about the 27 minute mark when she is taken he gives his ultimatum to the man on the other line, his daughter or his life. As the movie progresses it is clearly established that like the villain in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Special Edition) he chooses poorly.

At this point he is no longer the weaker link in a family squabble, he becomes John Wayne in Big Jake without Maureen O'Hara or sons to back him up. The locale is different and his foes are not looking for his cash but the quest is the same, the girl alive OR them dead, each and every one of them, but he makes a slight alteration; the OR becomes an AND.

Like Trade we see the inhumanity of the modern slave trade and the indifference of those who practice it. Unlike trade we get a movie that is meant to entertain and does.

It may be less realistic but the results are immensely more satisfying. He proceeds with no mercy to anyone who would hinder him, it is that lack of mercy or honor that makes this movie even better.

If you are a Wayne or Eastwood fan you will enjoy this movie particularly the last half of it. If you are a Michael Moore fan you will not.

Simple as that.