Taken

This first review is about a movie that's been out for a little while, but that I only saw recently.

The film is called 'Taken' and stars Liam Neeson as a protective father whose daughter is kidnapped while she is vacationing in France.

Liam Neeson's character, Bryan Mills, is divorced and living alone in "quiet" retirement. His ex-wife (Famke Janssen) married a rich man and has custody of their little girl. Apparently Mills was a preventor and his work for the government estranged him from his wife and child. He quit in an attempt to save his relationship with his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace(hottie)). I'm not really sure what a preventor's job description includes, but I know that Bryan Mills is the biggest badass of any movie I've ever seen. He is un-freaking-stoppable. As soon as he knows his daughter is kidnapped, he calls in all of his resources to get him to France asap and to tell him who the people are that he's looking for.

He goes from lead to lead, totally destroying anyone and anything that stands in his way with unbelievable ease. Taking on Albanian, human-trafficking, mobs as well as the French government, Bryan Mills is a nightmare for the people who took his daughter.

A lot of the action is reminiscent of the 'Bourne' movies, in that Mills wins fights with multiple armed opponents without getting hurt, gets in a huge car chase where he is the lone survivor, and when people try to track him or trace him, he is always one step ahead. I think I prefer 'Taken' to 'Bourne' simply because Mills is in his late 40's or early 50's. Not exactly in his prime, but still more deadly than a hundred men. Also, I just like Liam Neeson better than Matt Damon (No offense, Matt, I think you're brilliant).

The movie touches hard on a sensitive topic. It really gives some insight into how horrendous and serious a problem human trafficking is. In real life, foreign women are sent to America with the promise of jobs as nannies or maids, but when they get there they are restrained and made into prostitutes. Their "owners" will get them addicted to drugs so that they are unable to leave. There are real places like this all over in big cities like San Fransisco or Los Angeles. They are allowed to exist because of corruption in the government.

Oh damn, I got kinda preachy there. Maybe that was a little too heavy for my first blog. Oh well, no turning back now! On to the conclusion.

All in all, I'd say that I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I'm an action fan, but if the action movie has a good plot (like this one did) then the movie makes it onto my favorites list. Obviously this is just my opinion and you're welcome to have your own... even if I judge you harshly for having it and call you names for disagreeing with me.