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List Price: $29.98 | | Label: Twentieth Century Fox
Salesrank: 186
Released: May 12, 2009 |
| Our Price: $2.00 |
| Used Price: $3.52 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Prepare to get Taken for the ride of your life! “Liam Neeson is an unstoppable force” (Premiere) in this action-packed international thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. When his estranged teenage daughter (Maggie Grace) is kidnapped in Paris, a former spy (Neeson) sets out to find her at any cost. Relying on his special skills, he tracks down the ruthless gang that abducted her and launches a one-man war to bring them to justice and rescue his daughter.
- Audio: English: 5.1 Dolby Surround / Spanish & French: Dolby Surround
- Language: Dubbed & Subtitled: English, French & Spanish
- Theatrical Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 2.40:1
- Widescreen Feature Film
- Extended Cut seamlessly branched
- Forced Trailers:Wolverine, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, 12 Rounds, Valkyrie
- Trailer Farm: Notorious, Nobel Son, Possession
Description of Taken (Single-Disc Extended Edition):
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 (Single-Disc Extended Edition) Reviews:
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.
Some fun but almost as ridiculous as Death Wish Part 5 
2009-12-11 - One recent moment of great humor for me was watching 72-year-old Charles Bronson destroy bad guys and outrun automatic weapon fire during the fifth installment of his ever popular "Death Wish" series. That movie, made in 1994, was the end of the line for fans of that particular series. While Charles Bronson apparently wasn't available to play the lead here, "Taken" seems to have, ahem, taken up the mantle from "Death Wish 5" with ridiculous levels of action and heroism.
If you've been living in a cave somewhere, the plot of "Taken" is Liam Neeson's 16-year-old daughter goes to France with her teenage friend -- over dad's objections -- and is almost immediately kidnapped. This happens while she's on the phone with dad, a former security expert, who ends up talking to her kidnapper and vowing revenge.
Having apparently no financial worries, Neeson flies to Paris, almost immediately finds out who did the kidnapping, finds the guy and chases him to his death on a freeway ramp. This begins a lengthy discourse in ultra-violence and bloodletting rare even for this genre of film. You probably can figure out for yourself without seeing the movie the sequence of events and ending, so I won't bother with them. Suffice it to say the body count is high and the action plentiful.
I found myself both involved in this movie and laughing through much of it. There is no indication the filmmakers were trying to create a parody and the leading man certainly does nothing to generate laughs. He is completely serious throughout in the same way the steely-eyed and thoughtless James Bond of Daniel Craig contrasts to the cool, tongue in cheek and sophisticated superagent portrayl of Sean Connery.
If you like action, revenge and/or violence, you should watch this film at your earliest opportunity. It's pretty good as these films go with fine production qualities. Neeson's characterization, while not credible because of a flawed script and lack of vision, is compelling nonetheless. You'll probably root for him whether you like the movie or not.
I was TAKEN by this movie
2009-12-11 - Great storyline and a unique set of skills that should make a kidnapper worry. Or at least the smart ones... well choosing a life of kidnapping already dictates their stupidity so... maybe that doesnt work.. Uh! Liam does a good job making his part seem believable.. now this is a movie so some things may have worked out a bit better than real life.. but hey sometimes things work out...! SeE It
Just Hang On And Enjoy The Ride 
2009-12-09 - Sure, TAKEN is about eight feet over the top and soundly jumps the shark when Neeson's Super Dad/Super Bad character lands on the evil sultan's yacht (and those of you who have seen this film will know exactly what I'm talking about), but who cares? TAKEN is not for Sundance audiences or art houses; it's grand edge-of-your-seat escapism that takes the viewer on a wild, bumpy ride as former CIA agent (at least, we assume he's former CIA) Bryan Mills goes to Paris to kick some serious bad guy arse.
After grudgingly giving his teenage daughter (who lives in the lap of luxury with her mother and ultra-rich stepfather) permission to spend the summer in Paris with a friend and the friend's "cousins", we are not surprised to see the daughter get violently kidnapped by Albanian thugs running a sleazy prostitution ring. Well, they picked on the wrong teenager, as agent Mills (Liam Neeson plays this delightfully close to the vest) is about to show them all who's your Daddy. Putting all his clandestine skills to task, Mills mows through the Paris underground like a weedeater on acid, doing mega damage to all who stand in his way. Of course, his relentless, cold-blooded, calculating pursuit ultimately pays bloody dividends and last-second heroics, making TAKEN one fun ride--even if none of it is believable.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning
Fan-freaking-tastic!
2009-12-09 - WOW! "Taken" is an outstanding, suspenseful, action-packed thriller about Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), a former international spy whose teenage daughter is kidnapped while on an overseas trip with one of her friends. Bryan hurries to Paris and uses all his old spy skills to track down the creeps who have taken his daughter and plan to sell her into prostitution.
I don't want to spoil the film by giving away too many details, so let's just say that "Taken" is an awesome movie! You'll be sitting on the edge of your seat the whole time. Watch this one today!
(P.S. I heart Liam. He ROCKS in this movie!)
