Movie 24: Taken

Liam Neeson plays Steven Seagal, an ex-CIA “preventor” who has retired to be closer to his 17 year old daughter in the hopes that he can form a better relationship with her. She decides to go on a trip to France with her friend, which he is iffy about but allows her to go, with a number of conditions. One of these conditions is that she calls him regularly.

She’s 17 so she forgets. But when he’s calling her her friend is grabbed by some unknown men. Aware that his daughter is next, Neeson gets as many clues as he can to get him started then warns the men that they kidnapped the wrong guys daughter.

And the kidnappers are in the sex slave trade, so a bunch of really nice guys which is why we feel sorry when Liam goes all shooty balls on them. Not really.

Make no mistake, the only difference between THIS movie and a Steven Seagal movie, admittedly a GOOD Seagal movie, is that the lead in this is Irish. And it got a theatrical release. That said I genuinely like his movies, in fact we have one in the not to distant future. I hadn’t watched on up until about 5 years ago when a very short lived girlfriend (by that I mean the relationship, she didn’t have a 2 year lifespan or something. We dated for like a month basically) really liked his films so I watched a few. They can be hit or miss, but they ain’t that bad. Even if he can come across as an arrogant prick.

Please don’t hurt me Mr Seagal, I’ll buy all your movies AND your music album assuming you have one. I did plan to see your band when you were in Inverness but weren’t the tickets something like £70?! I mean JESUS, you’re not Muddy Waters you egotistical pri…..

I failed in my apology there huh? I have a mate who’s a ninja, he’ll take care of it (hopefully) if I get moidered.

Anyway the film. If you looking for an intelligent study of father / daughter relationships in a European setting with many scenes discussing how a work of art reflects the inner turmoil of our characters then you’ll be disappointed. If you want to see Liam Neeson use some skills similar to the start of Batman Begins, blow a bunch of shit up, hit many Easter European bad guys in the face, jam nails into one guys legs and electrocute him to find where his daughter is then you’ll be happy.

I was happy.

Beside’s Liam, who takes a bit of the Connery approach to acting in this as his character is pretending to be a French detective and his accent doesn’t change (no one notices) the cast is all fine. Not that there’s a whole lot of side stuff that matters as this is a fast paced movie. Occasionally it’s a bit MTV edited and over shaky cammed, but I’ve seen worse. And the close combat fighting seems realistic enough to me (they had an SAS dude helping).

So if your up for it, check it out. If you don’t like explosions and some Bauer type action, don’t.