Taken (2008)

2012-06-03

A top-notch thriller, complete with enthralling and fast-paced action and a solid cast, led by a very credible Liam Neeson. The intensity matches that of any movie in the trend-setting Bourne trilogy, though with an evidently lower budget, and therefore less gloss, which is pretty much welcome since found those movies rather wasteful, most visibly in their chase sequences. In this one movie, there are two chases sequences, and I feel the first one should have been cut short... it wasn't very interesting, and the movie feels too good to be yet-another noisy actioner.

I've noticed the movie has received much negative criticism, which I found very strange, especially given the skill the material was handled with. Much of the complaints had to do with it having implausible plot points, and I guess that I enjoyed it so much that I either didn't notice them, or that such weaknesses were really insignificant.

I found the subject material (forced sex slavery) quite scary and expertly handled.