Probably not good enough to have started the Revenge-Renaissance that it somehow did, but still a pretty entertaining time. _Taken_ does hit a lot of clichés though, and I mean, it starts hitting them right away. We're literally only minutes into the film before we find out that Neeson's lead character is divorced, and his wife has re-married to a decent, rich provider, but one who's bookish and could never take him in a fight, and that the present he got for his daughter is for an interest that she no longer has. But once we get into the action proper, it's pretty great. _Final rating:★★★ - I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a go._

Random viewing tonight, just wanted a slick and simple action-thriller and this fit the bill. Liam Neeson kicks ass and can see why his career in this genre really took off. The camera work was probably the biggest drawback (shaky cam), likely trying emulate the Bourne franchise or something. But entertaining flick that doesn't overstay its welcome coming in at around 90-minutes. **4.0/5**

Your arrogance offends me. It is proof positive that you can still have a basic and formulaic genre piece and the multiplex crowd will forgive it the sins of film making. For here we have a revenge thriller that is over reliant on a ream of contrivances? The kind that people scoff at when horror pictures not wanting to be serious get screamed down for?. There is also some pretty poor acting performances on show, the usually reliable Famke Jansen looks lost when asked to show emotion, Maggie Grace needs to go back to acting school, whilst some of the French actors on show give French actors a bad name. However the true saving grace in the movie, outside of some serious revenge fuelled torture sequences, is Liam Neeson in the lead role of Bryan Mills. Charismatic and believable as a father hell bent on finding the one thing worthwhile that he has in his life, it's only here that Luc Besson & Robert Mark Kamen's uneven writing gets any sort of urgency to go with the tidily put together action sequences. Taken is an enjoyable film if taken within the context of its genre, and for sure the subject matter of skin trafficking is a noteworthy plot, but no one can surely deny it doesn't have a shallow core and honestly isn't giving anything new to a pretty stagnated formula... By the by, the thrills ensure popcorn pleasing pleasures and thus it's rated as such. 7/10

**You will find this movie. You will watch it.** This movie came out of nowhere! The trailer for this film relied on just one short scene of Liam Neeson threatening a kidnapper on the phone... and that was all we needed to be hooked! A basic revenge/rescue movie elevated by fantastic action, stunt directing, and Liam Neeson's delivery, all transporting this thriller into a believable reality. One of the best of the genre that paved the way for John Wick.