At around 9 a.m. local time, Albanian human traffickers, looking for new merchandise for their prostitution business, abduct two American girls traveling in France. One of those girls frightfully describes what is happening over the phone as her father listens in horror at home in the U.S.
That father happens to be Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), and according to his sources within the intelligence community, he has 96 hours to find his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace, Lost"") before he never sees her again.
From the creative team behind the ""Transporter"" franchise, ""Taken"" has all the elements of a great thriller with a gritty backdrop, fully equipped with a modern damsel in distress and a hero willing to do anything to save her. So why, in this serious thriller, is the action less like a Jason Bourne movie and more like an Inspector Clouseau one?
It's certainly not the fault of the actors. Liam Neeson brings all the intensity and narrative power we've come to expect from him, while Maggie Grace plays his daughter like a 12-year-old hopped up on sugar and Red Bull. Nevertheless, it is extremely unsettling to think of a league of pimps selling her because of the innocence she conveys.
But once the principle story is out of the way and the characters are established, the film devolves into a 90-minute rundown, as the retired spy works his way up the ladder of dirt bags, using the subtlety of his fists and the occasional electroshock torture to determine whom to beat up next. At times, Mills even walks down a crowded street to find the next name on his list, then without a second thought knocks their face into a car window, only afterward bothering to ask, ""Have you seen my daughter?""
Furthermore, the film depends on every cliche of the genre. Endless streams of hapless henchmen stare intently at the wall they are guarding, only to drop like a bag of bricks with a quick pinch to the shoulder. Mills is retired, yet seems to have held onto his ""Spy-Mart"" membership card, which provides ample supplies of counteractive psychotic drugs, satellite phones, wiretaps and loads of foreign cash. With this advantage, he always manages to be one step ahead of the bumbling Parisian agents.
On a technical level, the film fares far better. Subscribing to the shaky camera school of Bourne and its ilk, the camera work lends an air of realism to the more improbable moments on screen. The action scenes are as ridiculous as the story, but are still fun to watch. In one scene, Mills tears through a construction site's fortress of prostitution in his bulletproof SUV, splattering mud all over a pursuing jeep, which runs into a steam shovel positioned perfectly to slice both the car and its passengers in two. Then, for good measure, Mills runs right through an office trailer, which explodes in excessive, propane-fueled glory.
Whether or not it was the film's intention, you will laugh at this one. Still, the whole experience is oddly cathartic. If you are tired of stuffy, art-house fare and need some explosive, simplistic relief, look no further.
Grade: C-
