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Taken Reviews

[Neeson's] presence deepens the role compared to your standard invincible action hero, delivering a character we want to see succeed.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 15, 2023

A perfectly effective escapist fantasy for dads. It may stick to the formula, but with Liam Neeson in the lead it absolutely delivers what the target audience desires.

Full Review | Oct 13, 2023

He shows up, he punches, he succeeds, he goes home. It works.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jan 25, 2021

When the protagonist can electro-shock torture a thug for information, and the audience can applaud him for it, it's evident that an intriguing character has been born.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Nov 29, 2020

Can we get lost in mindless action? Sure.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4.0 | Sep 25, 2020

Often bone-crackingly, flesh-rippingly violent, but no amount of excess detracts from this junky thriller's jagged appeal.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 8, 2020

Overall this is a good, not great, release of a film that has made itself an enormous amount of money and earned its place among our generation's other semi-superheroic thrillers.

Full Review | Apr 10, 2020

The cinematic equivalent of that guy in high school who was capable of making good grades but always coasted through with Cs.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 5, 2019

The audience is stuck with a film that is way nicer than it should be. Sure it makes the subject matter easier to take, but in the long run it really limits the film's overall effectiveness

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | May 22, 2019

It was great to be back in the atmosphere of intense audience involvement after seeing so many films viewed in the dutiful stupor produced by "quality" cinema.

Full Review | Mar 3, 2019

Doting dads are doting dads, I guess, and there is just no stopping him, which is a shame, as what follows is a big sorry mess of the most clichéed, improbable and xenophobic kind.

Full Review | Aug 23, 2018

The movie was awesome and definitely a must see.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Sep 12, 2017

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2011

As Kim, Maggie Grace is a bit old to convincingly portray a boppy underage teenager, although she appears to be giving her best to a one-dimensional role that essentially disappears during the movie's slam-bang midsection.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 29, 2011

Neeson stars in the sort of part Harrison Ford would have gotten ten or fifteen years ago.

Full Review | Aug 16, 2011

The dialogue is functional at best, Bryan's motives are basic; it's all apt for this bare-knuckle punch of an action movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 14, 2011

It's so awesome to see Liam Neeson taking out the trash in pursuit of his prized child.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 4, 2011

It's fun for about 15 minutes seeing Neeson do James Bond as Daddy Dangerous. But the surprise wears off quickly.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 3, 2011

In Taken viewers are introduced to a new side of Irish actor Liam Neeson, one that is relentless and likes to hit criminals in the throat -- a lot.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 1, 2011

Though the film takes some time to get going, once Neeson arrives in Paris, the 91-minute runtime flies by like its stuck on fast-forward.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 14, 2010

Taken Review

Liam neeson elevates this fun but formulaic revenge flick..

3.5 out of 5 Stars, 7/10 Score

More Reviews by Jim Vejvoda

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DVD & Streaming
Action/Adventure , Drama , Mystery/Suspense

Content Caution

In Theaters

January 30, 2009
Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills; Maggie Grace as Kim; Famke Janssen as Lenore; Olivier Rabourdin as Jean-Claude; Katie Cassidy as Amanda

Home Release Date

May 12, 2009
Pierre Morel

Distributor

20th Century Fox

Movie Review

What do you do if your 17-year-old daughter flies to Paris with another teen friend and is kidnapped by sex traffickers within hours of arriving? Well, if you’re retired CIA agent Bryan Mills, you go get her—brutally dispatching every one of the interlopers involved. That’s the premise in Taken .

But let’s rewind the tape a bit.

Bryan Mills was a good CIA agent. But until now, he hasn’t been such a great father. Years spent overseas have taken a toll on his family relationships. So on the eve of daughter Kim’s 17th birthday, he’s turned over a new leaf: retiring from the Agency and moving to Los Angeles, where he hopes to repair the damage his absence has done. His five-year marriage to Kim’s mom went up in smoke years ago. But he clings to the idea that devoting all his energy and affection to Kim might somehow salvage something . Anything.

Before he can get started, though, Kim hatches a plan of her own: a trip to Europe with her best bud Amanda to see Paris and stay with her cousins there. Her world-wary dad doesn’t like the idea one bit. But his daughter’s enthusiasm and his ex-wife’s haranguing make him relent—on the condition that Kim calls him daily with updates on her whereabouts.

She, of course, forgets his instructions the moment her plane touches down on French soil. And soon, she and Amanda meet a nice, helpful young Frenchman named Peter who graciously offers to share a cab with them and split the fare.

Kim and Amanda have hardly said goodbye to Peter and begun to unpack at her cousins’ commodious abode (they’re not home) when the phone rings: Dad. Kim’s annoyance with her hyper-vigilant father, however, melts into desperation when she witnesses Amanda being kidnapped in another room.

“There’s someone here. Oh my god, they got Amanda. They’re coming.”

“All right,” Dad instructs. “Listen to me. Go to the next bedroom, under the bed. Tell me when you’re there. Now, the next part is very important: They’re going to take you.”

And they do.

Positive Elements

Throughout Taken , Bryan demonstrates deep devotion to Kim—both before and after her abduction. We watch as he looks longingly at old birthday pictures and home movies of her. Knowing that she longs to be a pop singer, he gets Kim a state-of-the-art karaoke machine and uses a hard-won connection to give her a leg up in the industry. But far beyond that, Bryan’s ferocious love for his daughter compels him past every obstacle once she’s been abducted.

With help from CIA friends, Bryan learns that Kim’s kidnappers are likely a group of human traffickers from Albania … and that he has about 96 hours to find her before she disappears into the black hole of sex slavery. And so he uses clues from his short conversation with one of her kidnappers to piece together, CSI -style, important clues that eventually point the way to her location.

In the process, Taken shines a revelatory light on the scourge of human trafficking, a ruthless underworld where even one innocent mistake condemns a girl to a life of drugged sex bondage. Further to its credit, the filmmakers exercise some restraint in the ways they depict these young women’s forced prostitution. (More on that in “Sexual Content.”)

In his search for Kim, Bryan rescues a young woman who’s ended up with Kim’s coat. He takes her to a hotel room where he sets up an IV to help get the drugs out of her system. Bryan is motivated in part by his need for information from the woman, but it’s clear that he’s tenderly treating her the same way he would his own daughter.

Sexual Content

Amanda excitedly tells Kim that she intends to sleep with Peter. And she chides Kim for clinging to her virginity, saying, “You gotta lose it sometime, it might as well be in Paris.” After Kim is kidnapped, we learn that she’ll fetch a much higher price on the sex-slave market because she’s been inspected and found to be “pure.”

Bryan feigns propositioning a prostitute in Paris, and their conversation includes sex-related euphemisms. (We see her and several others in garish, revealing clothes.) Later, he discovers a brothel of sorts where newly “recruited” girls are forced into small, curtain-separated cubicles as a long line of “customers” waits to have sex with them. Bryan pulls curtains back from several of these dens to reveal women in various states of undress as men paw at them. There’s no explicit nudity, but the implications are horrific.

Women wear cleavage-baring outfits. A pop star wears a short skirt, and is later seen in a bathrobe. Kim and several others (presumably also virgins) are auctioned off in a dark room. We briefly see Kim in a bra and panties, another girl in a G-string and bra. The girls are later veiled and dressed in a sort of ceremonial garb as they’re presented to a sheikh who’s purchased them.

We hear several crude references to sexual anatomy.

Violent Content

Liam Neeson (who plays Bryan) is remarkably believable as a former CIA agent who has, in his own words, honed a “particular set of skills.” What he means is this: He knows how to kill.

Once Bryan picks up his daughter’s trail, the ensuing violence is nonstop and intense, if not particularly gory (probably the only thing that preserved this film’s surprising PG-13 rating). Bryan takes down a slew of baddies with guns. Others get stabbed in the chest. He breaks the necks of quite a few; even more are knocked out (if not killed) as he slams their heads into various hard objects—or coldcocks them with a gun. Several melees involve intense fist-and-foot combat flurries. Bryan crushes bad guys’ tracheas twice. A man fleeing him on a freeway suddenly gets plastered by a semi. Two reckless car chases involve Bryan piloting stolen vehicles against traffic on a French freeway. In one chase, a man rams his truck into the protruding prongs of a front-end loader’s scoop.

Another skill Bryan has perfected? Forcibly extracting information. In one scene, a kidnapper sitting on a metal chair is repeatedly subjected to electroshock torture as Bryan questions him about Kim’s whereabouts (threatening to pull his fingernails out if he doesn’t come clean). Even after the man confesses everything he knows and pleads for mercy, Bryan flips the electrical switch back on … and then leaves the room for good.

Also worth noting: Bryan shoots a man in the head who’s holding a young woman hostage. The coercive abductions of Kim and Amanda are disturbing. Bryan eventually finds Amanda, but she’s already died of a forced drug overdose.

A former colleague named Jean-Claude, who’s now high up in the French security agency, refuses to help Bryan and is intent upon arresting him. In a shocking scene that could have come straight out of TV’s 24 , Bryan shoots the man’s wife in the arm (“It’s just a flesh wound,” he helpfully explains) to force Jean-Claude to cough up information he needs.

Crude or Profane Language

Five s-words. About a dozen misuses of God’s name. (Once it is paired with “d–n.”) Roughly 10 other vulgarities are uttered (“a–hole,” “d–n,” “h—,” “p—“), and Bryan makes an obscene gesture.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Several henchmen from the sex-trafficking ring drink beer. A couple of scenes show people drinking wine and champagne at parties. Abducted women have clearly been drugged and are kept perpetually incapacitated. We see a needle going into a girl’s arm as Bryan sets up an IV for her.

Other Negative Elements

Bryan flouts both laws and ethics in his efforts to save Kim. He repeatedly steals cars, breaks into houses and endangers innocent civilians in car chases. The film implies that these choices are all acceptable given the gravity of his mission.

Bryan discovers that Kim has lied to him about her intentions in Europe. She and Amanda have actually planned to follow U2 around the continent—a plan her mother was in on and which she kept from Bryan because of his past attempts at controlling Kim’s behavior.

Jean-Claude is depicted as a well-heeled bureaucrat whose only concern is for his family’s comfort. It’s implied that the Frenchman is aware of the sex trafficking going on in Paris, but he’s doing nothing to stop it because many of those with whom he works are profiting from it and his job security depends on his passive inaction.

Taken deserves credit for decrying the horrors of sex trafficking, a subject that has received increasing press coverage recently. According to imdb.com , actress Famke Janssen (who plays Bryan’s ex-wife) was inspired by her participation in the film to get involved with this heartrending problem, to the point of becoming a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Office Against Drugs and Crime. It’s conceivable that some who see this film will be similarly moved.

But while Taken ‘s subject matter is all too real, the solution proffered here is pure Hollywood fantasy. Liam Neeson is part Jason Bourne, part Charles Bronson and part Jack Bauer. And if 24 ‘s Jack Bauer has tried to teach us anything, it’s that the end justifies the means. As long as your cause is just, you can do anything you want to the bad guys. Anything.

That’s definitely Bryan Mills’ modus operandi . His foes are bad, bad men who cavalierly destroy women’s lives for money. It’s not personal, it’s just business, one loathsome broker tells Bryan. So it’s hard to shed any tears when Bryan breaks their necks, smashes their throats, stabs them and shoots them. These men deserve all that and more, right?

Neeson echoed these sentiments in an interview with madeinatlantis.com . “As a father, you can’t imagine anything worse,” he said. “Of course, you wonder what your own reaction would be in that situation. You picture what you’d do to her kidnappers, and you soon come to the conclusion that you’d do anything in your power to save your child. I found this particularly interesting territory, because I’m traditionally against violence, especially the kind of violence Bryan resorts to in the movie. But it’s a case of ‘them or me’ and Bryan takes that situation to its logical conclusion.”

The film asks us to believe that Bryan’s killing spree in pursuit of Kim is something more than mere vigilantism, something akin to righteous retribution. And in the process it invites us to revel in the brutal beat down Bryan administers—mortally—over and over and over again.

So I wonder how many people will walk out of this film constructively brooding over the wicked underworld of forced sexual slavery. I think it’s more likely that they’ll leave with a mixture of surging adrenaline and voyeuristic satisfaction after Bryan makes good on his promise to his daughter’s abductors: “I will find you. And I will kill you.”

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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Fly Me to the Moon Review: The Best Date Movie of Early Summer

Mother, couch review: surrealist dramedy leaves many questions unanswered, longlegs review: nothing scarier will descend upon us this year, and it's more than just nic cage.

Liam Neeson opens a can of whoop-ass on sex traffickers in the riveting action-thriller “ Taken ”. Neeson stars as retired CIA operative Bryan Mills. He moves to Los Angeles to be near his teenage daughter Kim (Maggie Grace), who lives with her mother (Famke Janssen) and wealthy stepfather. Kim wants to spend the summer before her senior year in Paris with a friend. Her father’s against sending the girls abroad alone, but is led to believe they will be staying with adults. He reluctantly agrees, on the condition that Kim calls him the second she’s landed and every night during their stay. Every parent’s worse nightmare is realized when Kim calls her father open their arrival at the Paris apartment. There are no parents, the girls’ trip was a mere set-up to follow U2 around Europe, and there’s a knock at the door. Kim screams, terrified, men are in the apartment. They have grabbed her best friend and are coming for her. Bryan tells her not to fight them. He knows they will hurt her if she struggles. But he asks her to describe what she sees, anything to identify them. They have her…a mysterious voice picks up the phone. Brian, in a deadly calm manner, asks the foreign voice to let her go, or he will kill everyone is his way to find the kidnapper. The strange voice beckons him to try. And that is a mistake to taunt an elite CIA assassin.

Taken is an uncompromising, visceral film. It delves into the horrifying world of female kidnapping and sex slavery. French director/writer Luc Besson pens the script and produces the film. His vision is not only to deliver a spectacularly brutal action film, but to show an otherwise ignorant populace the heinous crimes of the illegal sex trade. Taken grabs you from the opening and never relents. Bryan is unstoppable in his quest for his daughter. His journey takes him to Paris where he uncovers a world of astonishing criminality. But while the bad guys are despicable, the vengeance he unleashes on them is like the hammer of god. They get their comeuppance from a father who will not stop until he finds his precious daughter.

Liam Neeson, known for his excellence as a dramatic actor, proves he has the chops to be the toughest action hero. His character is so lethal, and yet so understated, the performance shows how truly great Neeson is. Because there is no karate, no machine guns, no big explosions, just a death dealer exacting revenge in a cold-blooded way. And he is not superhuman. Mills gets more hurt, bloodier, the closer he gets to the truth of his daughter’s kidnapping.

Taken is an extremely violent and sexually explicit film. But it is not derogatory or overblown in any way. Its mere subject matter is a callous truth that the world chooses to ignore. I applaud Luc Besson for making, essentially, an action film expose about sex slavery. I have no doubt that people will leave this movie appalled and enlightened about this subject matter. In a lesser actor’s hands, the powerful impact of the subject matter would not have been so ably delivered. Liam Neeson, the man who played Oscar Schindler and Alfred Kinsey, truly has the skill to play any character.

Movie and TV Reviews
taken (2008)

Cast & crew
User reviews

A retired CIA agent travels across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris.
Seventeen year-old Kim is the pride and joy of her father Bryan Mills. Bryan is a retired agent who left the Central Intelligence Agency to be near Kim in California. Kim lives with her mother Lenore and her wealthy stepfather Stuart. Kim manages to convince her reluctant father to allow her to travel to Paris with her friend Amanda. When the girls arrive in Paris they share a cab with a stranger named Peter, and Amanda lets it slip that they are alone in Paris. Using this information an Albanian gang of human traffickers kidnaps the girls. Kim barely has time to call her father and give him information. Her father gets to speak briefly to one of the kidnappers and he promises to kill the kidnappers if they do not let his daughter go free. The kidnapper wishes him "good luck," so Bryan Mills travels to Paris to search for his daughter and her friend. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
After reluctantly agreeing to let his 17-year-old daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), go to France with her best friend, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is horrified to hear that she is kidnapped by an Albanian gang whose specialty is prostitution rings. With only 96 hours to go before he'll never find her again, Bryan rushes to France to save her. As a former CIA agent, he has all the skills necessary to rescue her - if he can only find her. — The Mariah
Former CIA agent Bryan Mills reluctantly agrees to let his 17 year old daughter Kim go to Paris on a trip. His ex-wife Lenore and her new husband Stuart are all for it and Kim sets off with a friend. On arrival in Paris however, Kim and her friend are kidnapped by mobsters running a slavery-prostitution ring. Bryan's only lead is a short snippet of a conversation from when Kim phoned him in a panic. With that, he's able to identify the origin of the speaker and which criminal gang he's with. Once in Paris, he quickly shows everyone connected with the case that he will stop at nothing to get his daughter back. — garykmcd
Yearning to bridge the gap between him, his ex-wife, Lenore, and his lively seventeen-year-old daughter, Kim, the divorced and almost retired former CIA agent, Bryan Mills, struggles to spend more quality time with her. However, when Mills reluctantly gives his permission to let Kim and her friend, Amanda, travel to Paris, his fears will be justified, as the two innocent girls get kidnapped on arrival by a ruthless white-slavery ring. Now, up against the well-prepared kidnappers, the seasoned veteran has less than 96 hours to rescue his daughter, and the clock is ticking. Can Mills put the fragments of information to good use? — Nick Riganas
Bryan ( Liam Neeson ) is retired CIA. he loves his 17 yr old girl Kim ( Maggie Grace ), who now lives with ex-wife Lennore ( Famke Janssen ) & her new husband Stuart ( Xander Berkeley ). Kim wants to be a singer. Bryan is protecting a pop singer Sheerah ( Holly Valance ) as a private consultant with friends (Sam ( Leland Orser ) & others) & saves her life. She shares her vocal coach & manager's numbers with Bryan. Kim wants to go to Paris with her friend Amanda ( Katie Cassidy ) & Bryan is skeptical but signs the consent form when Kim is upset with his refusal. Kim says the trip is an art tour of Paris, but they actually intend to follow U2. Lennore knew but didn't say anything. At Paris airport airport, they meet a young Parisian named Peter ( Nicolas Giraud ). He wants to share a Taxi. Kim reluctantly agrees. They have Peter take their picture with Kim's phone. Peter drops them off & invites them to a party. Peter makes a quick phone call "Two girls about 18," and the address of the apartment. Kim asks Amanda about the cousins & Amanda says that they are vacationing in Spain. As Bryan calls Kim, 2 men attack & subdue Amanda in their apartment. Bryan asks Kim to hide under the bed. She tells Bryan about Peter. Bryan tells her that she will be "Taken" but asks her to keep her phone on & shout as much description as possible. Following Bryan's instructions, she screams out, "Beard! Six Feet! Tattoo, right hand, moon and star!". The kidnapper takes the phone & Bryan tells him to let Kim go, else he will find & kill them. The kidnapper says "Good luck." Bryan calls in Sam & he finds the language from a town in Albania (the voice conversation of kidnappers recorded via Kim's phone). Their leader Marko ( Arben Bajraktaraj ) runs a prostitution business & Bryan has 4 days to save Kim. Bryan finds KIm's phone in her apartment in Paris & traces Peter through a photo Kim took at the airport. Peter runs as Bryan pursues & gets killed. Bryan meets French intelligence Jean-Claude ( Olivier Rabourdin ) who gives him an address where the Albanian gang operates out of. There he finds Kim's jacket on another girl ( Héléna Soubeyrand ). He takes her, escaping the Albanians. Jean-Claude wants to meet Bryan, but Bryan doesn't trust him & escapes a trap set by Jean to capture Bryan. The girl he rescued gives him an address in Paris where Kim is. Bryan gets there & finds Marko via his particular accent of "Good Luck." He shoots everybody but Marko. Then he finds Amanda's dead body in an upstairs room. Bryan tortures Marko who says that Kim has been sold to St-Clair ( Gérard Watkins ). Bryan enters Jean's house & finds that Jean is in cahoots with the Albanians for the money. Bryan shoots Jean's wife & tortures him to reveal St-Clair's address. St-Clair is auctioning off the new meat, Kim, who goes for $500,000. Bryan forces one bidder at gunpoint to outbid all. St-Clair captures Bryan & restrains him & says "It's only business." Bryan escapes & kills St-Clair, before which he reveals Kim will be at the pier. At the pier, the boat has left & Bryan follows it & boards it from a bridge. He finds & shoots an Arab sheik who has Kim & other girls as prostitutes. Back home, Bryan takes Kim to meet Sheerah.

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Jason Statham's $397M Movie From Last Year Secretly Set Up A Perfect Sequel

All 8 humphrey bogart war movies, ranked worst to best, how paul newman's towering inferno sequel killed the disaster genre for 16 years.

Screen Rant reviews Taken

My opinion of Taken may be skewed - I have a daughter. So a movie that shows a father's daughter being kidnapped and the father going after the perpetrators with a vengeance most definitely speaks to me. :-)

Another factor in favor of the film is casting an older actor as a kick ass action hero: Liam Neeson. Of course the flip side is that having a 56 year old "regular guy" kicking major amounts of butt does strain credulity just a bit.

Taken opens with Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) in the living room of a modest home. He's alone and seems lonely. It turns out that he is divorced and is trying to make up for lost time with his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). His ex-wife Lenore (a very stiff Famke Janssen) has married a rich man, and Bryan is having a hard time competing with that, even though his Kim obviously loves him.

Kim wants to go on a trip to France with a friend, but being ex-CIA and familiar with the dangers that are out there doesn't want her to go. His ex-wife bullies him and his daughter's disappointment finally convinces him to reluctantly let her go, but with a bunch of rules for calling him and checking in often.

Of course he turns out to be right and she and her friend are kidnapped rather soon after their arrival in Paris. Kim calls her dad while terrified as she sees her friend being manhandled, knowing that she is next. Bryan immediately goes into "CIA mode" during the call and when one of the kidnappers gets on the phone Bryan tells him that he has kidnapped the wrong person in no uncertain terms.

He heads off to Paris alone to track down the kidnappers and save his daughter, and that's where the fun really begins. Despite the heavy tone of the film and what is at stake, it's great watching Neeson as he follows the breadcrumbs, taking twists and turns (some of which are VERY unexpected) in tracking down his daughter's whereabouts.

Surprisingly, Taken is rated PG-13. They manage this with the old "no blood visible" trick, but from the amount of violence and the subject matter (teen girls being kidnapped for sale into prostitution and addicted to serious drugs) I certainly think this should have been rated R.

Neeson is calm, cool and he kicks all kinds of bad guy butt. I enjoyed the film so much I could easily sit through it again, but it did have its flaws. Why did his CIA buddies not offer to go along and help? Some of the action scenes are a bit unbelievable considering how outnumbered Neeson is and the fact that they don't present him as an uber-buff Stallone character. The number of dots he connects within a short span of time is also hard to swallow. And one of the people he kills at the end of the film with no repercussions is a bit hard to swallow.

But enough with the nit-picking: Taken was a rocking good time, especially during this January/February time of year when there isn't much worth seeing at the movies.

Taken stars Liam Neeson as ex-Green Beret and ex-CIA operative Bryan Mills, who retired from his life of fighting in order to be there for his family. When his teenage daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) travels to Paris and is kidnapped by human traffickers, Mills launches into action, mounting a one-man rescue mission that sees him tear through gangs of European criminals with extreme prejudice in hopes of finding and rescuing Kim before it's too late.

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Movie Review: Taken (2008)

General Disdain
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--> July 29, 2008

There’s a new action star in town and it isn’t anyone you would immediately suspect. Does the name Liam Neeson ring a bell? Yes, the same guys who has primarily played the nondescript role for the majority of his career has found his John McClane as Bryan in the French action, quasi-thriller Taken .

Surprisingly, it isn’t as bad as you may think . . .

Neeson is a retired CIA operative trying to piece together his broken family. After his intense career, his wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) has left him and remarried and he’s all but a stranger to his 17 year-old daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). He finds the only way to reconnect with her and make peace with his ex-wife is to go against his better judgment and allow for Kim to travel to France with her girlfriends. He should have stood his ground though, because shortly after landing in the City of Lights, Kim and her friend are kidnapped by Albanians and sold as sexual playthings to the fabulously rich and the insanely powerful.

What follows next is a nice change of pace (the broken family man shtick gets old quick) as Bryan hauls ass to Paris to begin his hunt for the abductors. He dons his Sherlock Holmes hat and cape, and conducts some impressive detective work (which is sprinkled with some extreme luck). First, he goes to the kidnapping location and gets led to the man responsible for setting the girls up. Next, using his contacts in the French police he makes his way to a sex camp which in turn leads to a holding/drug house which leads to another link in the chain which invariably leads to another link (I don’t want to give it all away). What’s important is at each stop Bryan beats the living shit out of everyone within reach. Some of it is completely far-fetched (fighting a roomful of thugs armed with semi-automatic weapons unarmed) and some of it is pain-wretchingly real (anyone care for some home-brewed electrocution?).

Neeson does an admirable job as Taken ‘s human battering ram (undoubtedly some of his skill comes from what he learned on the set of Batman Begins ). I must say, he carries himself well for a 56 year-old man. His moves are not as precise or as crisp as what I’d expect from the ass-kicking hero, but they’re good enough to get by with. Everyone else in the film is a throwaway napkin. Director Pierre Morel could have switched them around or substituted monkeys in their place without causing much of a problem since, aside from from the beginning of the movie, there is very little interaction between characters. The only thing missing was the wise-cracking remarks that are staples in the “kick ass and ask questions later” type of movie. But while they were notably absent, I can’t say I missed them a whole lot (probably due to the fact that these “witty” one-liners have steadily gotten worse and worse).

So its no Die Hard . So what – nothing is. It’s no James Bond flick either. What Taken is, is a good middle of the road action movie, that is on par with the likes of Seagal’s and Snipe’s finest (i.e., Under Siege and Passenger 57 ). It also proves to the rest of us (mostly me) that there is more to France than fine wines, croissants and surrender flags.

I'm an old, miserable fart set in his ways. Some of the things that bring a smile to my face are (in no particular order): Teenage back acne, the rain on my face, long walks on the beach and redneck women named Francis. Oh yeah, I like to watch and criticize movies.

Movie Review: Ghosted (2023) Movie Review: Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) Movie Review: Fantasy Island (2020) Movie Review: Snatched (2017) Movie Review: Horrible Bosses 2 (2014) Movie Review: ABCs of Death 2 (2014) Movie Review: Life After Beth (2014)

'Movie Review: Taken (2008)' have 108 comments

July 31, 2008 @ 12:29 pm Atomic Popcorn

Now how did you see this already? And are you able to post up a review prior to the launch. If so contact me I want in hehe. My rules are day of launch of the film.

July 31, 2008 @ 7:07 pm General Disdain

Movie was released a few months ago actually. It just hasn’t opened on any screens in the states yet.

August 13, 2008 @ 7:01 am ARt

LOL! Classic way to end a movie review. :D

September 22, 2008 @ 11:36 am Robert

Is this a joke????!!!!!!!

This movie rocks… the only weak point is the job from the girl that makes te daugther of Liam Nesson that tottally sucks… I have to say it.. this review really sucks

September 23, 2008 @ 2:44 pm General Disdain

I have to say it.. this review really sucks

Why exactly does this review really suck?

September 29, 2008 @ 1:48 am Bardha

i think the movie is great… but just to let u audiences know that albanians arent cold hearted the way they pictuerd them to be in the movie…. and were also not that desperate for money or … either than giving us albanians a bad name and makin this movie box officee hit in serbia its a good movie…

September 29, 2008 @ 5:45 pm Sammy

Do the French have police? With so much public violence I should think a police officer or two would show up on the scene. I don’t recall even hearing a siren!

October 1, 2008 @ 6:26 am Chris McCrory.

IN ALL HONESTY THIS REVIEW HAS OBVIOUSLY BEEN WRITTEN BY SOMEONE WHO HAS VERY LITTLE UNDERSTANDING OF THE OUTSIDE WORLD AND EASTERN EUROPEAN DOMINANCE IN CAPITAL CITIES WITH REGARDS TO ORGANISED CRIME. THIS MOVIE WAS FANTASTIC, IT HAD A VERY CREDIBLE STORYLINE AND AN EXCEPTIONAL CAST. THIS IS WITHOUT DOUBT THE BEST ACTION/THRILLER I HAVE SEEN IN TEN YEARS OR MORE. LIAM NEESON DESERVES AN OSCAR/OSCARS!!!!!!

CHRIS, BELFAST..

October 3, 2008 @ 7:41 am General Disdain

Albanians arent cold hearted? ;D

I think there were some cops in a few scenes; just not very many of them.

@ Chris McCrory

What does my lack of European knowledge have to do with my review? And no, Liam Neeson does not deserve an Oscar.

October 5, 2008 @ 1:25 pm mel

this movie was actually really good, however it did potray albanians in a very bad way. In actual fact we are NOT like that at all, and you have to take in to account that this is how hollywood makes the “bad guys” seem. We are anything but cold hearted. :)

October 12, 2008 @ 4:49 pm mlee

Great movie, very nice script. I agree Liam Neeson’s duaghter inthe movie was the worse part. Her acting was not good. She acted very childish for a seventeen year old.

October 13, 2008 @ 4:37 am marius

How in the world was this movie good? Did you see it at least? Is like Steven Seagal on steroids..Too bad for Liam Neeson. I used to consider him a serious actor.

October 14, 2008 @ 8:10 am Bekim

i just sow thif film and its looks cool,

as you are right all who makes this kaind of movies for albanians.

becouse we dont have goverment to put all of you in the court.

and we are kaind of poor as a goverment.

as we are the people we cant do nothing,

you can do more and more about albanian and make a bad name becouse its all the albanian goverment foult.

October 16, 2008 @ 10:09 pm Gloria Nielsen

I agree with the reviewer who said those who did not rate this film highly have no understanding of the reality of life in Europe. This movie portrayed a very realistic account of what happens to girls who are innocently caught up in the sex slave trade. It could happen to anyone including young boys. Unfortunately, whilst I am certain that not all Albanians are “bad”, it is the Albanians who are renowned for this type of recruitment, and whilst all Arabs are not “bad” either, sadly, it is the ultra rich Arabs who are predominately on the market for this kind of sex trade. What the movie did not portray was what happens to these girls after they have passed their “Ã¼se-by” date, if they have not succumbed to drug overdose. Many are never heard of again. This movie is a must see for our young people heading overseas – only the chase and action scenes were overplayed, and the girl being fortunate enough to have a father who rescued her – the rest was spot on.

October 18, 2008 @ 4:14 am Bardha

Its actualy isnt the albanians governments fault for any of this… im 99.9% sure dat da director or writer is or has a friend thats serbian for this wouldnt be all based on albanians… and it doesnt just happen in Europe it happends very wea around the world… IM albanian so i dont want movies like this disgracing my culture and country… this movies good but its not just albanians who do stuff like this, so dont judge albanians by this movie….

October 20, 2008 @ 4:03 pm Gareth

I agree with you robert is this review a joke? The film isnt just a middle of the road action thriller how can you call yourself a reviewer maybe a complete fool yes definately. I have been to see this film twice now as i think its one of the best films to come out for ages. It doesnt just cruise through the film with violence, it brings up some good points which people need to know about our world like trafficing girls, its bloody disgusting and at least this film touches on this subject. I agree die hard it isnt but then die hard doesnt really have any morallistic views does it FOOL!!!

October 20, 2008 @ 4:36 pm marius

gareth: no offense dude, but I would have banned your ass after such a language also u are missing the point: this movie wasn’t suppose to be a documentary on human traffic and the reviews on this blog are more about the movies and the actors. Got it?

October 20, 2008 @ 6:10 pm General Disdain

My lack of knowledge for European life had no bearing on how I rated the film. I based my review on the merits of it being a good action movie.

@ Bekim & Bardha

Stereotypes are everywhere. Yours apparently coincides with the sex trade.

I’m a fool for thinking the movie was good but not great? Guess that’s why they say opinions are like assholes…

October 21, 2008 @ 7:29 am Il Voce

How can anyone call this film realistic? Middle-class white American girls do not get trafficked. Besides, by the time Neeson’s character gets to his daughter, she would have been passed around like currency. I didn’t see that happen.

October 21, 2008 @ 2:53 pm Dianne

Did you not understand that the girl was not “passed around like currency” because she was a virgin – and virgins were kept for being auctioned off to the highest bidder. Also, did you not hear the comment earlier in the movie, where they explained that whereas the trafficking used to be (and still is)tricking Eastern European girls into believing they were being hired into legitimate work, it has become easier and less costly to target innocent girls hopping of a plane, or train etc. from anywhere in the world.

October 22, 2008 @ 10:00 am Logan

For me TAKEN is one of the best films of the year, simple fact. The action was amazing and it just doesn’t let up for one second. The coldness and calmness under pressure that Liam Neeson exhibits is truly breathtaking. The film doesn’t indulge in long winded fight scenes that go on and on, instead they were short, quick and deadly. The speedy solutions that Neeson’s character uses time and time again were truly film gold and should be respected by all who see it. No rocket launchers or stupid car jumps here, he takes out more adversaries here with chops to the throat and broken arms than I could count and the film has realism and real life situations by the bucket load. There are some corny moments in the beginning and right at the end, but from the moment the action starts to the moment it ends you will be impressed and on the edge of your seat, guaranteed. It raises issues about prostitution and people trafficking but it isn’t a documentary and doesn’t pretend to be. This really is a great film and I would give it a full 5 stars. Go and see it and make up your own mind.

November 6, 2008 @ 7:53 pm Mobo

I really can’t stand the stereotypical i-don’t-get-a-scratch-on-me-but-if-i-do-i-just-get-even-better kinda kick-ass, karate, Jean “Rambo” Seagull muslegay shit! But.. For once it was a non-stereotype actor, Mr. Neeson, doing some (quite surprisingly) very delightful, well-deserved, neck-breaking, scum-killing ass kicking. So, I for one found this movie quite entertaining. Liam is THE punisher in this flic! Agreed, he has some ridiculously lucky, very well timed moments.. And yeah, it’s overrated at IMDB.. And yes, it does have some errors (She’s a virgin?! Errm, police? He can just leave the country, no questions asked? A virgin, really?).. Well I didn’t really care, I was cheering for him all the way “you go get those Albanian mofo’s, yeah!” :D

November 7, 2008 @ 3:19 am bruno

just saw this movie. Thought it was pretty good. Lots of action, why tha fuck do you need dialogue in action movies? it was action packed, and Lian was awesome, very scary and ruthless;

” I have gained a set of skills that would make me a nightmare for a man like you” awesome, I knew just from that short line that he was going to kick some ass.

good review overall.

November 8, 2008 @ 7:04 am General Disdain

why tha fuck do you need dialogue in action movies?

You don’t!

November 11, 2008 @ 7:22 pm Sokol

I’m Albanian and thoroughly enjoyed it. Great movie, action, broken necks, diy electrocution, love it. One thing, we all need some reality escaped once in a while, but i really wished that some of it happened for real. In other words, I quite like to see it live or some sort of documentary where pimps are tortured with medieval tools, like giant smoldering logs are stuffed up their asses, you know stuff like that. As far as national pride is concerned, a pimp is a pimp, the lowest of the lowest and deserve proper man agment,no mater where they’re from. Last line for General Disdain Your comment sir :Stereotypes are everywhere. Yours apparently coincides with the sex trade.’ with all due respect, go get stuffed. Regards Sokol

November 11, 2008 @ 9:20 pm General Disdain

Twas a joke, my friend.

November 13, 2008 @ 4:45 pm MovieGoblin

One of the BEST movie’s I have EVER seen. This reviewer is a joke for not rating it higher. Die Hard? ha! This blows Die Hard out of here.

November 13, 2008 @ 5:33 pm General Disdain

One of the BEST movie’s I have EVER seen.

I guess it is safe to say you haven’t seen many movies then. By the way, Die Hard is a much better action movie.

November 21, 2008 @ 9:38 am US

This movie is really an eye opener for young generation heading to overseas. There is no doubt now that I would be careful dealing with Albanians in future. As someone mentioned before, not all Albanians are bad…but better safe than sorry.

November 24, 2008 @ 10:46 pm Leaonidus4Glory

Great movie. Must say a one of the better ones iv seen in a while. Just wierd how the release date is January 30 2009. Anypoop enjoyed the movie some good action and shit. Pretty sure the Albanians are all bad haha jk people.(there actually pretty nice) But talk about sick the old bastard being greedy and buying three. Sick.

November 28, 2008 @ 4:58 am E

I really liked the movie. One of the better movies I’ve seen in a while. Great action throughout the whole movie and Liam Neeson did a great job. If you like action, this movie is up there.

November 29, 2008 @ 9:54 am Gareth

Message for marius. Marius whoever you are my comment has got nothing to do with you i was having a dig at the reviewer so why dont you keep your big nose out. Have you ‘Got it’? now boy.

December 1, 2008 @ 2:03 pm Alicia

This is the great eye-opening movie for young women.

Many affluent Americans & Canadians have no idea what “sex-trafficking” is even about before they see this movie. Yet it is “epidemic” in certain parts of Europe. Although it was common in Arabia and Eastern countries, now it is almost epidemic in European cities and has finally trickled into San Diego, Montreal and the state of Connecticut.

Unfortunately, it will become more common & it will become more common in the news (Little Madeline McCann was taken from her apartment in Portugal and many experts believe it was a sex trafficking ring for pedophiles).

My aunt saw hundreds these trafficked girls in public places in Arabia during the 1970s (with their Achilles tendons cut so they could not run away). Because it is such a lucrative business, the corruption with public officials is wide spread and well known.

December 1, 2008 @ 4:12 pm Gloria

Thank you Alicia for your intelligent comments on this movie. It is time more people became aware of this very sad situation. The movie portrayed a very realistic view of this.

December 6, 2008 @ 4:40 pm greta

In my opinion, the movie rocks it has a great storyline, a great history, and a great hero, but the girl(maggie grace) who plays liam neesen’s daughter did an awful job. she portrayed the 17-year ol girl as 10. she seamed really naiive and childish and irresponsible for her age since she kept on running around like a 3 year-old. sorry but a lousy choice for an actress.

December 17, 2008 @ 6:09 pm nagui

This is definitely the worst so-called action movie i have ever seen, my friends woke me up twice during the movie,liam neeson is mr. Know and do it all,a fake jack bauer, the director watched too much of 24(obviously when drunk),a good movie for 12 year olds.i could not believe xander berkeley would trade georges mason for THIS 2 LINE ROLE.I THINK 56 IS A GOOD AGE TO RETIRE FOR NEESON,OR AT LEAST PLAY GRANDPA ROLES NOT ACTION,and i thought the daughter was going to kinder garden and not paris,anyway a total waste of 90 minutes and i believe the critics that have seen it share my opinion.screw u Rony for recommending this movie.

Naguizzzz and Naylazzzzzzzzz Lebanon

December 18, 2008 @ 8:36 pm marek connell

Well, is this a good movie? Yes it is fantastic. I replayed the part where Liam told Marko “I spoke to you 2 days ago. I told you I’d find you” over & over again. I think that this film more than the Die Hards highlights the lengths that a parent will go to to protect/ save their children ( being an ex-mean mother-chucker definitely makes it easier to achieve this goal. The portrayal of ALBANIANS in this film is obviously not favourable however Western films will always point the finger in another direction (The Hostel-Slovakia to name but one). What mustn’t be over-looked is the fact that the king-pins of the whole “Business” are not Albanian (Western/ Europeans & Arabs are also implicated) Neeson’s desk ridden French colleague is all to aware of what is going on too. The most disturbing point of this film (as Hostel possibly was too-I hope not) is that these kind of demonic businesses exist and they involve people all the way to the top of the food chain. And unfortunately just like all tragedies that befall mankind, they are the consequence of individuals who turn the other way to receive their paycheck and take care of their own. A fantastic film. Liam definitely deserves much recognition for this film that almost slipped through my radar. All responses welcome. Marek C

December 18, 2008 @ 8:46 pm marek connell

1 more thing tho-the ending at the airport was very unconvincing-That was probably the worst part of the film-There was no sense of agony, of overwhelming relief from the parents that their daughter had been rescued from a life of slavery and a horrible death. Yes Liam doesn’t get a scratch on him while he notches up his body count but the director is very clever in dropping hints in the first quarter of the film that he is leathal. Would/ could anyone survive such a blood bath in real life? Maybe not but I’ve heard stories where a mother, single handedly picked up a car to save her child underneath it. I wish Liam was my dad. Or maybe I wish I were a dad like Liam.

January 2, 2009 @ 1:03 am Silencer

Very good movie. One of the best this year actually. Watch it. I highly recommend this movie! again… watch it. You won’t regret watching it.

January 4, 2009 @ 1:57 pm John Reeves

“It also proves to the rest of us (mostly me) that there is more to France than fine wines, croissants and surrender flags.”

– The words of an idiot

January 4, 2009 @ 3:42 pm General Disdain

The words of an idiot

Indeed. Who does that guy think he is?

January 12, 2009 @ 4:06 am mike

ohh yeaa believe, im albanian……and albanians could be even worsee. their exatly as the movie potrayes them as….especially the dibrans. But we cant stereotype all albanians as bad. Their are also really good albanians with good hearts, but this movie shows only the low life scummy albanians. This movie was sickkk and i love every sec of it. MORE MORE MORE

January 14, 2009 @ 8:27 am Nika

This movie was really good, and of course people have moveis before they come out all the time

January 15, 2009 @ 4:29 pm george p

This is a comment for all of those who see the 17 year old daughter as childish… Well, I know, in real life, 20 year olds who are even childish… I’m not a human behavior expert, but i think it has something to do with the environment, childhood experience, “being the only child”, or even the way parents nurture their kids. So, we there are 17 year old who are childish and at the same time, there are also those who have matured early. Also being the youngest child could greatly affect the traits of a person. With regards to my comment about the movie, It’s great and it keeps you at the edge of your seat but their are loopholes that I should point out. First, the movie has indeed filled with extreme luck! It’s like the movie Independence Day where characters where able to protect the earth due to luck. Second, the character of Liam seemed to be the only person who knows how to shoot guns and hit bullseyes. Whereas, bad guys with extreme guns on the film seemed to be unlucky to hit the protagonist even if they already have a clear shot. Too bad, they might be just plain unlucky to hit the target (blame it on the too biased script). Third, you may laugh in this comment but this is insanely true. After all Liam Neeson’s character did, he was just left there at the airport and took a cab and ride home alone. How pathetic the mother and adoptive father of the girl for not even giving a “hero’s ride”. The script was totally “inhuman here.” So cold-hearted.But, overall, I was hooked with the fast-paced storytelling here.

January 17, 2009 @ 9:16 am is this seat taken

This movie was absolutely ridiculous….action and the bad guys getting killed, yes——but not believable at all….silly.

January 22, 2009 @ 8:27 pm ACTION_STAR

GREATEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME! BEST EVER! AND TO THE ONE SAYING DIE HARD IS A GREAT ACTION MOVIE? HOW CAN YOU RATE AN ALL CGI FILE TO BE A GOOD ACTION MOVIE?

January 22, 2009 @ 11:46 pm efe

i’ve seen this movie. i saw it a while ago. a verrrrry long time ago! i was suprised to see it being advertised on t.v as coming out in cinemas on the 30th! how does thos happen?

January 24, 2009 @ 4:41 am General Disdain

All CGI? Die Hard came before the computerized action revolution.

Film has a late release in the states. Came out in EU last year.

January 25, 2009 @ 12:12 am opinion8er

This movie was the best film I’ve seen in a long time. The cast was outside the realms of the hollywood spotlights and glamour, media. This actually made the film much better as it actually touched home, and made it that much more realistic, sort of a cozy action flick, this was absolutley brilliant. This film is rated a 9/10 in my opinion, much better than all the hollywood crap thats out now, open your eyes and compare the shit thats in the theatres, (and I’m talking with big name stars), there’s no comparison. Too much garbage in the theatres now, I don’t give a shit whos face is on the screen, I would preffer watching a cast thats slightly out of the spot lights, makes for a much better film. Unexpected performances tend to keep me more on the edge of my seat. Rather than the usuall (already know what to expect) bullshit some of the bigger stars tend to give. THIS MOVIE KICKS ASS! Barnone best flick of 2008-2009.

January 28, 2009 @ 12:02 pm keith

THIS WAS THE BEST MOVIE IVE EVER SEEN

January 30, 2009 @ 4:38 pm Dave

I just saw Taken. It was very very entertaining. Jason Bourne meets Steve Segal. Neeson does a great job. Worth it!

January 31, 2009 @ 10:14 pm alljackedup

Loved the film. A great escape from my Mid American business life. But let me qualify myself as an expert on such films. If I had a dollar for every loose truth based spy novel I’ve read and enjoyed, I would be wealthy. Good enough qualification?

A couple inconsitencies though for you other fans:

1. Why did he not persue the other spotter (black guy)after the young Frenchman got killed by the truck? 2. Why would the (not actually) Albanians in the kitchen believe he was a French official when he spoke to them with a Scottish brogue? 3. How did the Sheik know which of the 3 girls was the daughter? 4. And lastly, what was the body count?

January 31, 2009 @ 11:28 pm Michele

Ok…The movie ROCKED! The plot was great. Human trafficking does happen all over the world…DUH…But THIS movie took place in London and the “bad guys” were Albanian. But how many movies have we seen with Asian, Arab, African, Russian, etc…countries/cultures as the used as the story “bad guys” that are involved in human trafficking. Check out “Eastern Promises” and that ROCKED too! Review the movie and go to a human rights site and find a way to help human trafficking from happening if you really care. Stop trying to be all political on a movie review site.

February 3, 2009 @ 9:36 pm all you need is love

at US “This movie is really an eye opener for young generation heading to overseas. There is no doubt now that I would be careful dealing with Albanians in future. As someone mentioned before, not all Albanians are badâ€¦but better safe than sorry.” are you serious?????? are you seriously THAT ignorant about the world??? who the heck worries..then my friend you should worry about EVERY single person you meet because they all come from some part of europe and asia (and australia) but incase you did not know MOST of europe is involved in disgusting human trafficking…and so is north america by the way…its just the scum…not only ONE country who is worrisome..dont be so ignorant as to assume that…that is just about the most stereotypical comment (and its not even a STEREOTYPE about albanians). generally they’re known for their mediterranean cultures and stuff …but hey if you wanna worry…dont get close to ANYONE ok?!! after all..better safe then sorry right?

February 4, 2009 @ 7:04 am Cat

very good movie

February 8, 2009 @ 9:20 pm smudge

The ALBANIANS were Albanian effing MUSLIMS. Did you notice the tattoos they showed several times? This movie was painful for me to watch. I had a relevant close encounter with some Arab men in NYC in the 1970’s.

February 9, 2009 @ 4:02 am Smiffy55

I saw this at the weekend and it must be one of the worst films I’ve seen. I should say that I’m no expert in the world of action movies but this didn’t even come close to the level of the Bourne films or Vanishing Point. It was just the filming of the action from a Computer Game. Did anyone actually care about whether he saved his daughter? She and her friend were airheads from a smug, selfish family. Frankly I hoped it would end with a twist but of course there was no chance of a surprise ending. Key messages: – Don’t leave America, it’s dangerous out there. – All foreigners are murderous or corrupt. – It’s okay to torture and shoot everyone, including the wife of an old colleague. In fact it’s the ultimate statement of the doctrine of the American regime.

February 9, 2009 @ 4:33 pm Mel

I’m sure that the Albanians would have been Muslim seeing as the tatoo was clearly shown and that they were from the north of Albania. However you must bear in mind that this is a Hollywood film we’re talking about and the majorty of Albanians are Christian and are not invloved in any form of “trafficking”. A lot of propoganda is used now-a-days and obviously as the audience we would really dislike the “bad guys”, but then again this is expected from America to potray a film in this way. -Just wanted to let you know :)

February 9, 2009 @ 10:10 pm General Disdain

A lot of propoganda is used now-a-days and obviously as the audience we would really dislike the “bad guysâ€, but then again this is expected from America to potray a film in this way.

Just thought I’d let you know, this film is not a Hollywood production. It is a French product.

February 11, 2009 @ 3:40 pm Sam Criswell

Taken is also reviewed in SMU’s Web site. Matt Carter calls it “a lighter, less intense “Bourne Identity.”

February 12, 2009 @ 1:13 am sue

this movie was great. i plan on seeing it again. someone mentioned eastern promises, i beleive this one is way better. as fa as albanians and sex trafficking. this is 100%true, this they also due human organ trafficking. I read online quotes from carla delponte’s book. when i read her book and saw the movie and heard from other people , seems like (not all) but enough albanians are vigalant animals!! be careful when traveling abroad

February 13, 2009 @ 6:37 am sn0m

Sue you need to educate yourself a bit, maybe a crush course in English to start with….. There are Albanian sex trafficers and organ trafficers like anywhere else in the world, but that doesn’t give you the right to make any sweeping statements. Let say I’ll make a stupid statement like all pub-going, chain-smoking, crack-head living in housing estate, single mothers in England are baby killers????? Do you understand how stupid it is to make such statements….. You also need to read a bit more before making any statements regarding Carla’s book as there is not a single shred of proof of evidence and as far as I am concern she is hiding behind her diplomatic immunity when challenged about it. However this is about the movie and not about non-fiction books that you can painfully manage to read and amuse yourself.

February 13, 2009 @ 3:14 pm mel

well said sn0m :)

February 13, 2009 @ 5:05 pm sue

snom- i get it your albanian, and you 100% right to be offended. i should of not stated all albanians, just i guess most of them. one thing why would carla hide behind her immunity? she is not on trial for anything. 2 albania has been under observation for a bit now in organ trafficking 2 albania is a hot spot in europe for drug trafficking sex drugs corruption it all goes together. it just happens that this movie taken which is a GREAT movie, happens to wxploit some of that. Americans in many foreign movies get displayed not that great , but what ever jsut brush it off its facts

February 14, 2009 @ 12:37 pm B

“i should of not stated all Albanians, just i guess most of them.” You can not judge an entire group of people or as you said, “most of them” on a movie. Each and every country has people that do wrong things but you can not say that most of them are (as you said) vigalant animals. Let me just say that I am Albanian and i find that comment incredibly offensive. Honestly, some of the people that have commented seem very ignorant about Albania. Stop judging people that you barely know anything about!

February 14, 2009 @ 1:20 pm sue

in regards to what you said B. the reason i say this is a few reasons one being what i said above about europe and albania is 100% true. another reason is i live in the suburbs of detroit michigan and you being albanian know there are alot of albanians here. so my experience living with them and working with them is more than enough reason. another is a good friend of mine whom is albanian maria, she married an american , her family disowned her no communication what so ever. she is another source some stuff she tells me is sick!! that sick albanian that turned the gas on in the house and killed his wife and kids for insurance money. she tells me at church , of the fights when people would take out there guns , shootings nad killings. this is from an albanian girl. like i said you’re right its not fair to judege them all , but when you here so many horrible things about a certain nationality it’s kind of hard not to judge.

February 15, 2009 @ 10:30 am Rambo

overall the movie was good… but there were lot of insignificant scene maybe.. scenes that are irrelevant.

February 16, 2009 @ 3:56 am Dan

First of the movie was very average. Many here tried to compare it against Die Hard and other movies such as Bourne Identity…well, this movie is no-where near those levels.

Besides the logical fallacies of the movie plot and some action scenes, the acting was of almost the entire supporting crew was very poor.

As for the Albanians, I’m myself one and by God I don’t see myself as a “viagalant animal”, it’s hard to convince people with a very limited knowledge that reality is much different from the fiction they choose to believe.

These “animals” Sue, did manage to give the world Mother Teresa; keep that in mind next time you let your fingers do the typing and your ass the thinking.

As for Del Ponte’s book, I’m surprised that you even know of it, as it is such an odd choice. This is widely considered as an urban myth, because if it was true some people would be going to jail by now. I take it you really don’t know much about it.

Lastly, as others have mentioned here, Europe is full of criminals from all over the world and unfortunately the most dangerous ones are the ones at the top of the food chain. This includes some of the people that you and me pay taxes to here in the states. So don’t be an ass and talk about the Albanians that way. If we are all to follow our stereotypes we would end up not talking to many people at all, especially in the US.

For the sake of us Albanians, please stay away from us, your stupidity might be infectious.

February 16, 2009 @ 5:15 pm sue

dan – the reason , i know of this is because i study political science. and europe is a major emphesis. so for me carls’ book is not an odd choice second, for organ trafficking, in europe it is an ordeal, with a case on it against albanians. so my as you said ass is not doing the talking. about politics you are 100% right about it it’s very corupt. and i did take back all albanians, but you being one should not a very vast amount are corrupt. but i canundrstand you’re offense because you are albanian. just as i would get offended when people spit at the usa, and americans. one more point when you said about corruption inamerica , this is correct, but did you know albanians have this biggest lobby in usa! checkmate

February 16, 2009 @ 8:57 pm sn0m

Oh dear, this is turning into a Sue versus Albanians contest, well I’m in for it, so you the others enjoy the spectacle. Sue there have been cases of organ trafficking in Albania. The one that I know was between gypsy kids (most of the times sold by their parents or relatives) and Greek doctors. They were sent to jail. Could there be others, possibly. So should you have any information either sent it to the police or post it here. As far as I know, the organ trafficking in Europe is done in the form of health turism, were sick patient do to India or Pakistan and come out with a new kidney or liver. As far as Carla’s book is concern, it talks about KLA (kosovan liberation army) using serb prisoners for organ harvesting in a house in north of Albania. It is a lot of bullandcowshit. A international tribunal team who was invited by the Albanian government did not find a single shred of evidence about it. When Carla was challenged about providing proof, she said that she is a Swiss diplomat now and is not allowed by low to speak about the issueâ€¦ahh?what? We in Albania think that this was cooked by the Serb propaganda machine to taint the liberation struggle of KLA and Albanian people. And by the way, there are thousands of Albanians that disappeared during serb occupation who I have the right to think that were used for organ trafficking, but do I have any proof, no so shtumâ€¦ And a final advice, when you post here, please let the Microsoft spelling service, provided free of charge, to do the spelling and not your assss cas, seriously, it hurts reading your stuff. Regards Sokol

February 17, 2009 @ 7:48 pm Jen

I agree with Dan and B

February 18, 2009 @ 12:27 am sue

snom- you are funny , you say if i have info. hand it to the authorities. listen to yourself! of course carla lied in her book, of course they found nothing , of course its serb propaganda.. this is of course according to you. but to me since you said you are albanian, it sounds to me like albanian propaganda! i am sorry you can not deny the drug trafficking, women/girls kidnapped to be sold or made money on. it’s a reality it goes on, and albanins are not the only ones involved in it, but they’re involved.

February 18, 2009 @ 12:34 pm Hazel

I saw this movie last night. Just because there were some Albanians being bad guys in it does not mean it was saying all Albanians are bad. Just like watching bad Germans in Schindler’s list does not mean all Germans are bad. There were some bad guys.. they happened to be Albanian this time. Next time they could be from someplace else. This was an excellent movie. Not wooden acting. That’s for sure. Of course, with Neeson, it never is. He draws the audience mercilessly into every emotion he wants, like a master conductor. He drew empathy out of me as easily as Paris Hilton draws paparazzi. I often find the acting in action flicks about as riveting as watching grass grow. The action is great. And I like that, but give me some acting chops. Liam Neeson is amazing in everything he does. And kudos to whomever realized that a 56 year old actor can pull this off. I hate it when the audience is treated like we’re stupid and all we get is the same old thing over and over again. Gimme something fresh. Surprise me. Dammit! And finally… somebody did… and knew Neeson was a perfect choice. Thank you… and wow… it wasn’t Hollywood. Take the hint. We’re tired of cliches. If you give us something worth checking out, we’ll go… hey… I’m going to pay my money and see this again.

February 21, 2009 @ 1:30 pm a4l

albanians=G’s

February 22, 2009 @ 12:17 pm Burn the Witch

If you’re an offended Albanian or feeling sorry for the pride of Albania after watching a movie about a few Albanians, then get over your emo self.

It’s a movie, not a documentary.

February 26, 2009 @ 5:12 pm Dan

Whatever you say you can’t cover the fact that you try to generalize all Albanians. THAT is the fallacy in your logic, which you only realized later after you typed your first few comments.

Have a nice day!

March 9, 2009 @ 1:51 am don't behave steve

excellent acting, action, and plot.

the fight scenes are performed without hesitation, the key to this character’s behavior.

Director works well to tell the story and stay out of the way.

don’t behave steve

March 11, 2009 @ 3:29 pm alvin

it is defintely one of the best movie i have watched so far this year. Nothing business-like, just very personal shooting action. I like it for the fast pace and no-sense-ness.

and somehow it does feel right because the hero dad is under time pressure as well as to safeguard’s the daughter’s virginity before she loses it to some fat old man…. lol

March 16, 2009 @ 2:11 pm Bob

Saw this movie yesterday and left laughing. There are more plot holes than dead Albanians in this movie (and there are plenty of them). How Liam manages to kill all these baddies without spilling one drop of blood is a mystery and whoever is responsible for continuity in the film should never work again. And then there’s Maggie Grace: why Lost’s vixen, Shannon, was chosen to play a 17 year-old is another mystery – but I guess she needs the work. Poor Famke Janssen aint no Jean Grey in this movie; you sort of wish Liam would give her a well-deserved shot in the mouth. The final mystery is how Liam and the rescued Maggie emerge back home from an Air France terminal grinning like idiots after he has broken more laws than bones – OK, the French are a very forgiving people and yeah, the police were a tad corrupt, and maybe they were grateful that he single-handedly took care of that nasty sex-trade problem…Oh while I’m thinking about it, how stupid are these Albanians believing the old guy with the Irish accent is a French police inspector? And the ending, it’s hilarious!

March 19, 2009 @ 1:03 pm PRIS

THE BEST MOVIE I HAVE SEEN.. I LOVED IT!!!

March 20, 2009 @ 2:50 am dan

everyone who has written on this wall should read my review which is basically better than all of yours. you all need a life if youre spending time gossiping about a movie. its sad how lonely you peole must be. my name is cornelious and im amish, the only reason im doing this is cuz im high and my eyes look redder than the devils dick. i think you albanians are fuckin stupid for tryin to make this a racial matter, u sound retarted, and when i think of albanians now i think of an illiterate retard with a rubics cube. now fuck off or eat my mc cunt nuggets

March 25, 2009 @ 12:58 am TKBlock

I respect the critics review on this movie as well as others point of view of this movie. I have seen hundreds of action movies in my lifetime, but nothing, and I could not stress it enough, nothing held me down on my seat gasping for more than this movie. It was so good, after finishing the movie, I watched it again immediately. Everything fell into place. It was the first time I have felt so much sympathy to a movie character, it’s scary, and I’m not even a father yet.

March 28, 2009 @ 2:42 am Dad

This is a great film. Unfortunately most people that watched it are missing the moral of the story. They always seem to pinpoint and focus on what is far fetched or whatnot. The main point of this film is what great length would a father do to get his daughter back. Most of you wouldn’t understand. Everything that comes in between him and his daughter will receive the ultimate consequence.

April 2, 2009 @ 10:25 pm Unknown

Taken is a good movie. I watched it twice. It does not make me think that Albanians are bad people because it is just a movie. I learn something new from the movie about how people trafficking women, shout out what we see about the kidnappers and etc. Although the policemen seems like not doing their work in the movie but no movie is perfect. Just enjoy the movie, learn something from the movie if any and move on.

By the way, all races have good and bad people. That is a fact. I personally think we do not need to argue about that.

Your review is meaningless. Nothing but cursing.

April 7, 2009 @ 9:27 pm brad

just saw this movie and it is seriously the best movie ever. lot of action and just remember: GOOD LUCK

April 21, 2009 @ 9:19 am Jane

It was very good it stayed in my mind even long after the movie. I think its alot better than the crap movies that are made today. That was 1 of the best movies I’ve ever seen!

April 27, 2009 @ 3:57 am Fernanda Bendtsen

I usually dont post in Blogs but your blog forced me to, amazing work.. beautiful

May 24, 2009 @ 10:19 am Don W

This was a GREAT movie…I don’t like to watch movies again, but I will watch this one again!

May 25, 2009 @ 7:04 pm Finnster

Wow, almost everyone in this thread is either brain damaged, or never went to school. You guys need to learn some punctuation and spelling.

June 15, 2009 @ 2:54 am Gillie

Was a great action packed movie. Enjoyed the to-the-point role of the father. Was disappointed with the ending. Okay, maybe it could be assumed the daughter was recovering (although you wouldn’t know it from the ending), but I would have liked to have seen him get a lot more appreciation from the ex-wife or someone, government. Even another ending could have sufficed. Agents from the Embassy of France could have been waiting to pick him up for questioning. Just to dry for such a great beginning and middle. Let’s have a contest, who can come up with the best ending.

June 22, 2009 @ 12:13 pm JDS

One of the best action movies I’ve seen, and I’ve seen quite a few. Im neither Albanian nor American, but this movie strikes a chord.

Not quite sure what the reviewer was smoking when he wrote this, but it must be good.

– JDS

July 5, 2009 @ 2:04 pm June5Rose

Watched in spite of lukewarm reviews, but it turned out to be a winner. Any other actor but Liam Neeson would have made this action drama a B movie. With him it is A+++. Because of comments about Kimmie, I looked up Maggie Grace. She is 26, not a good choice for a 17 year old. Because she is tall, she looked silly wearing babydoll dresses, squeling and jumping like a kid, and riding a horse. She is irritating when you watch the movie over again. She came across as a spoiled rich kid, doing anything to get her way. Was she chosen instead of a younger girl because of “auction” scene? Agree with Gillie about dull ending. Parted at the air[port like acquaintences, instead of bonded family members. Even though the daughter went through hell, did they have to have soppy ending of meeting rock star?

July 13, 2009 @ 8:46 pm Winson

I already saw Taken two times and I really loved unbelievable ass kicking in this movie. I will not agree with the rating this movie has got here (seen better), but again its personal opinion how you approach watching a particular movie.

For me it was fast action packed movie and it was run by one man show Liam Neeson, who really played his character well. Overall must see movie.

My Rating: 8.5 out of 10

July 13, 2009 @ 9:09 pm club penguin

This movie portrayed a very realistic account of what happens to girls who are innocently caught up in the sex slave trade. It could happen to anyone including young boys. Unfortunately, whilst I am certain that not all Albanians are “badâ€, it is the Albanians who are renowned for this type of recruitment, and whilst all Arabs are not “badâ€ either, sadly, it is the ultra rich Arabs who are predominately on the market for this kind of sex trade.

July 13, 2009 @ 9:26 pm Bardha

this is for “General Disdain” look im Albanian and even though were sweet and carin people i realy think u beta shut the fuck up with “Stereotypes are everywhere. Yours apparently coincides with the sex trade” shit..! before i stick my leg up ur ass.. We aint like that ok so don Fuck me off with that shit..! we dont cause trouble anywea because we dont let shit heads like u get to us cause were better then that.. so unles u want fucking trouble i suggest u apologize and shut da fuck up inda future aight..! Peacee.. :D:D

July 14, 2009 @ 6:02 am General Disdain

I smoke only the best.

There must be an element of truth to the stereotype, otherwise the movie would not have had Albanians as the sex traders.

July 15, 2009 @ 10:57 pm Bardha

Yeah well at least were doin a fuckin good job at it then fuckin piece of shit…! qifsha nanen e budallit hajt shko mytu naj kah bre kali.. :P:P:P hahahhahahahahahahah im lovin this… :D

July 27, 2009 @ 12:22 am jeshok

This movie is horrible. Extremely discrimanotory, racist, perpetuating ignorant fear ,and downright stupid.It is like the the ridiculous movie hostel, written by and for ignorant redneck Americans who have never traveled to Europe, and are made fearful to do so. I am so angered by this movie it makes me sick. Our world is a beautiful place, and any time I see something so ridiculously portraying the beauty of traveling, and causing any one to be fearful of it it makes me want to scream. do not watch it, it sucks. The chances of any of us being put in to this situation are as likely as our father’s being able to get us out of it, possibly even slimmer. Travel where ever you can, ignore stupid shit like this, watch quality movies, and take my advice, I have lived in many parts of the world. We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Just be smart about stuff, read let’s go, on a shoestring, or any one of the other fabulous books that make it possible to travel without fear of being accosted by freaks.

August 20, 2009 @ 10:56 pm Kristin

I think this movie is quite good. The beginning was quite slow but it did explain the situation between father and daughter….

I did have a question though, and I know you want more feedback…BUT my boyfriend and I (are) watching the movie. In the beginning when the mother walks into the room while the father is on the phone, does she say “Will you go back to me” or “will you get back to me”. I am not sure!

September 5, 2009 @ 12:08 pm Honey

I loved the movie. I’m not a fan of action or the like but this really got me. Some parts are kind of unbelievable but they’re forgivable. I so love it.

September 25, 2009 @ 7:07 am EJ

I am not so critical of movies, in fact i would like to critique your critical critic ass. by being so critical as to rate movies by how shitty they are you tend to strangle all the life out of it. sure its not the best action flick, but i have to disagree with your opinion about the lack of realism. many techniques he used in the shooting scenes were very realistic. the only times i was left going ‘whhhaaaaaattttttt..’ was in the car chase shootout scene, and the epic drive over the couch through a hail of gunfire. everythings else was pretty legit. as for the acting Liam wasnt really going for the over the top badass role, he is playing a father with an extensive service career who has 80 hours to get his only child back… daughters acting wasnt too bad, all in all it was a very entertaining movie worth a few viewings.

To all the naive women who think american girls arent kidnapped and sold like any other female, go to another country and start telling everyone your alone whilst advertising your immaturity. for the record im not at fault, becuase this is retarded advice.

January 15, 2010 @ 11:14 am Dawn

I’m soooo glad that I didn’t read just your review before I saw this movie. I might have missed a very good movie. Yes a lot of the shoot outs weren’t very realistic but it is a movie and as I tell my 8 year old son….. Most of what you see on tv and movies is not real. If movies/shows were made 100% in reality, we wouldn’t watch them as they wouldn’t keep our attention. It’s the shock and awe that we like. The movie definitely opened my eyes to what goes on. I had known about human trafficing but didn’t really know. I always wondered why people didn’t run if the chance came, I had no idea that they kept them drugged like that. I think about when I was younger(I’m almost 39) and feel very lucky. I put myself in so many situations that something like this could have happened to me. If I had a daughter, I would make her watch this movie every year of her life from age 12 on. These days we can’t be too careful with our children, it’s sad that we can’t let our children have the freedom that we had as children/teens but sadly in todays world, we just can’t. Anyway, WONDERFUL movie, in my opinion and reading most of the replies, over 80%, I’d say disagree with the original review of this movie.

January 15, 2010 @ 11:32 am Dawn

Oh, I forgot to add, I agree with a lot here, I too didn’t like the ending. The ending that they did was unesssesary. I think that they should have ended at the part where he got his daughter back and she said, “You came for me.”(or something like that) and he said, “I said I would.” That would have been the perfect ending for this movie. Anybody else agree that the movie should have been ended there or have a better ending?

April 22, 2010 @ 9:38 am Lul

yeah, I think the ending was just really unsensitive, if he is a hero, killing all the bad guys to save his daughter then he should be the one getting a fucking red carpet…right! –maybe the director tried to portray that he/the hero stays alone as he was,… or what!?? : good guys reward for being a “bad guy killing karate chop machine” is that he gets to have his own CAB.

By the way, movie was good. It just shows what a parent would do..not neccesarily could, but definetly would.

May 4, 2010 @ 11:21 am Stephanie

I believe the review was pretty accurate. It was a review of the movie, not on the values or lessons within the movie. However, the lessons within the movie are valuable. I have seen the movie several times, simply because it does not put me to sleep, and it can be entertaining.

Thank you for the review. Stephanie

July 29, 2010 @ 10:39 pm zac

This movie was not to horrible, but not to good either

July 15, 2011 @ 4:33 pm Moodle

Ok guys,we all know liam nelson is one of the best actors ever,this one and the shildren list is very good,also the unknown that he dont know who is,great,my favorite with de niro.

June 3, 2012 @ 10:19 pm Kirk

Thank you for such a well-written attention-grabbing article. I found it to be a very entertaining read.

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The Taken Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

Pierre Morrel's 2008 film "Taken" is brazenly morally irresponsible.

"Taken" was not so much a thriller as an indulgent "dad fantasy," rooted in xenophobia and male sexual hysterics. The lead character, Bryan Mills, played by a wholly devoted and utterly capable Liam Neeson, was a divorced dad of a teenage girl named Kim (Maggie Grace) who saw his clout as a parent disappearing into the wealthy black hole of a cold-shouldered ex-wife (Famke Janssen) and her attentive new husband (Xander Berkeley). Bryan is a former CIA agent, and his job kept him away from home enough to damage his marriage. When Kim announces that she and a friend are going on an international holiday together, Bryan warns her that such an excursion is dangerous; kidnappers, he knows, often target traveling American teenage girls and sell them into sexual slavery. It sounds paranoid and everyone dismisses him.

Perhaps predictably, Kim is almost immediately kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery. It will be up to Bryan — middle-aged divorced dad extraordinaire — to use his murder skills to rescue her. Bryan's morals are simple: it's okay to murder a thousand Albanian gangsters if they threaten to harm white American teenagers. It's a power fantasy for violence-minded middle-aged divorced dads everywhere.

"Taken" was so successful that it spawned sequels ... in the form of an entire subgenre: the Post-Taken Liam Neeson-is-a-Violent-Dude subgenre. "Taken" is the first film in this series, but other films unrelated to "Taken" still count in my mind as sequels. "Taken" was "Taken 1," "Unknown" was "Taken 2," "The Grey" was "Taken 3," "Taken 2" was "Taken 4," "Non-Stop" was "Taken 5," and "A Walk Among the Tombstones" was "Taken 6," and "Taken 3" was "Taken 7."

That said, let's rank the seven "Taken" movies from worst to best.

7. Taken 3 (a.k.a. Taken 7)

The coolest thing about 2014's "Taken 3" is the name of its director, Olivier Megaton. Apart from that, "Taken 3" feels less like a straight-up sequel to "Taken" than one of its many lackluster straight-to-video knockoffs (which Neeson, incidentally, also starred in from time to time). The plot involves the murder of his ex-wife Lenore (Janssen), and his vengeful tracking down of her killers. The action is generic and terrible and makes no sense. "Taken 3" was the object of widespread derision when a seven-second clip was posted online of Bryan Mills jumping over a fence. The seven-second clip featured 14 edits . It was everything wrong with action filmmaking in a nutshell. Neeson was in his early 60s at the time, so some editing may have been required to depict him moving far more quickly than a 60-year-old ordinarily might, but, golly, was this film chopped to pieces.

6. Unknown (a.k.a. Taken 2)

Jaume Collet-Serra's 2011 thriller "Unknown" begins with an intriguing premise, worthy of the notable 1995 UPN series "Nowhere Man." Liam Neeson awakens from a four-day coma only to find that no one recognizes him, including his wife and close friends. He can't seem to find any evidence of his existence. The film, sadly, is not savvy enough to imply that Neeson's character may be going mad, and merely delves through a nondescript detective plot to find a foregone conclusion. Like "Taken," there are a lot of panicked races through an exotic European city, in this case, Berlin. "Unknown" is as forgettable as its title might have you believe, and possesses none of the slickness that Collet-Serra brought to his generic Disney adventure "Jungle Cruise," nor any of the fun wicked energy of his "Oprhan." The best thing about "Unknown" is the presence of Diane Kruger, who dazzles the universe without even trying.

5. Taken 2 (a.k.a. Taken 4)

The gimmick of "Taken 2" is that Bryan and Lenore are the ones who are taken, and a large portion of the movie is devoted to their daughter Kim tracking them down. It seems that one of the victims from the first "Taken" had a powerful father, and he vows revenge against Bryan Mills, very much in the same way Bryan vengeance'd all those Albianians. Maggie Grace proves to be a capable action heroine in her few running-across-the-rooftops scenes, although it will be Bryan who ultimately commits the most violence, natch. The exotic setting this time around is Istanbul, and director Olivier Megaton makes great use of the city's famed Hagia Sofia as a landmark. It's a watchable film, but little more. I have seen the film twice, and it still didn't leave much of an impression.

4. Non-Stop (a.k.a. Taken 5)

Collet-Sera's "Non-Stop" is just as dumb as the previous films on this list, but it emerges as one of the better films in the unofficial "Taken" series by mere dint of its insane Liam Neeson performance. In "Non-Stop," Neeson plays a gruff ex-cop (of course) who gets a text message on an airplane informing him that a random passenger is going to die every 20 minutes unless he transfers $150 million into an untraceable bank account. Neeson storms about the plan like a crazy man, wrenching phones out of people's hands and waving a gun around, looking for the culprit. Could it be notable lead actress Julianne Moore? "Non-Stop" may have been a post-9/11 coping mechanism, but it serves instead as a kooky distraction that would play perfectly well when watched on an airplane.

3. A Walk Among the Tombstones (a.k.a. Taken 6)

Scott Frank's "A Walk Among the Tombstones" is also somewhat forgettable ... wait. What was this film about? Heck, have I even seen it? I remember seeing a film with Liam Neeson and Dan Stevens, I think, so I'm pretty sure I saw "A Walk Among the Tombstones." What might be recalled accurately is that Scott Frank actually constructed a downbeat noir film, moodier and less action-heavy than the other "Taken" films on this list. I definitely recall the diner scene pictures above, and I recall Dan Stevens, handsome devil that he is, giving a good performance as a drug kingpin. I remember a brutal close-quarters fight involving a garrotte wire and a cleaver. However well it might be remembered, its moodiness stands out, as does Neeson's trademark hollowed-out ex-cop character. It's certainly better than "Taken 3."

2. Taken (a.k.a. Taken 1)

The original "Taken," described above, may be morally irresponsible, but that's probably part of the film's twisted appeal. It's clearly and pathetically a power fantasy for grumpy dads, and it does everything it can to justify murder as a reasonable course of action, but those things add to the film's outrageous charm. It has the nuance and moral subtlety of any number of B-action movies from the 1980s but possesses a unique Eurosleaze charm that only screenwriter Luc Besson could provide. This is a film for the lizard brain, an unabashed display of id. It is so hateful and blunt one can't help but admire its bleak purity. I love "Taken," even though I 100% disagree with its politics. It's no wonder that it inspired an entire subgenre of films and has buoyed much of Liam Neeson's career for the last 15 years.

1. The Grey (a.k.a. Taken 3)

Joe Carnahan's 2011 film "The Grey" promised to be a salacious thriller. Liam Neeson plays a man, standing on the brink of self-slaughter, whose plan crashes in a snowy wilderness among a pack of vicious wolves. Prior to its release, "Taken" fans hoped that "The Grey" would feature a lot of awesome action scenes of Neeson fistfighting wolves. After its release, audiences found a calm and harrowing tale of nihilism and atheism. As Neeson and his fellow survivors track their way through the woods to an unknown rescue, they begin to die off one by one, untrusting and unskilled in wilderness survival. Eventually, Neeson will be the only one left standing. Hopeless and pondering the losses in his life, he wails at the heavens, imploring God to interfere, to help, to do something.

When the sky remains quiet, Neeson mutters "F*** it, I'll do it myself." "The Grey" is assertively about loss, despair, and the persistence of pained life in a godless world. It's handily better than an entertaining puffball like "Taken."

How this list was made

This ranking was created through a combination of independent research and expert opinion. We compiled all relevant data, studied/watched all relevant material, and used our best professional judgment to determine the order of the list. The final order was determined by examining the larger cultural ramifications of each entry, as well as our take on the material, as determined by the past year of our work and analysis at /Film.

Consequence

Classic Film Review: Ten Years Later, Taken Is Still Defined By Its Most Iconic Scene

Ten years ago, Liam Neeson showed off his particular set of skills for the first time

Directed by

Pierre Morel
Liam Neeson
Maggie Grace
Famke Janssen

Release Year

“I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you”.

Imagine an entire film franchise springing from the success of a single scene. Ask the average person what they remember most from 2009’s Taken , and they’re likely to cite the above speech, growled by ex-CIA Agent and current overprotective dad Bryan Mills ( Liam Neeson ) to the kidnappers of his daughter Kim ( Maggie Grace ) — setting up the seventy minutes of mayhem to follow. Ask them to remember anything else, and they’ll likely come up blank.

And yet that single, evocative moment launched two sequels, a television series, and a host of all-budget imitators. It’s a testament to the strength of that scene, which was indelible enough that the film’s own marketing largely revolved around it. The gamble worked, too; Taken ‘s $25 million budget made its eventual $226 million box office take a particular miracle, opening up a new subgenre of mid-budget Eurotrash action movies and a career revival for Neeson.

But does the rest of the film hold up to that singular, iconic phone call? Prior to it, we get a solid half hour of character-building with Neeson’s Mills, an ex-CIA agent who’s given up his life of extrajudicial torture and counter-terrorism efforts to become a backyard-grilling suburbanite. He spends his days working security for pop stars, and his nights chugging beers with his old CIA buddies. It’s lean but efficient character-building, Neeson establishing Mills as an overprotective dad whose training pulls him to keep a closer-than-usual eye on Kim, with whom he’s attempting to rekindle a relationship. However, when a girls’ trip to Europe goes wrong, and she’s abducted by sex traffickers, the infamous phone call occurs, and he’s on the warpath to get her back.

For the next hour, Mills does exactly that. Much like its spiritual successor John Wick , the first Taken simply positions its star to mow through reams of anonymous Eastern European heavies.. It gets more than a bit repetitive after a while, but co-writer/producer Luc Besson and director Pierre Morel (who would only direct the first) still provide a novel showcase for Neeson’s particular set of skills. We’re used to Neeson being a grimacing badass by now, but back in 2009 it was novel to see Oskar Schindler running down guys half his age in a car. Even if it all feels like window dressing to get to his inevitable victory, there’s a sense of glee and excitement in Neeson’s performance that was sorely lacking in the Taken sequels and many of its ensuing imitators. Just as Neeson’s clearly having fun playing with his previously buttoned-up prestige actor persona and getting down in the muck, one gets the feeling that this scenario activates in Mills a sense of righteous fury that his mundane suburban life can’t provide.

However, taking a step back from the immediate thrill of Bryan Mills tearing through Albanian sex traffickers like so much Irish butter, the politics of Taken certainly align with many of the ugly post-9/11 impulses America was reckoning with at the time. Taken is your dad’s favorite movie for a reason: it’s about an angry, paranoid Boomer rescuing his beautiful, virgin-pure daughter from scary Eastern men who want to drug her up and auction her off to sheikhs. As politics go, it’s the film adaptation of an email forward from your uptight uncle who watches too much Fox News: Foreigners are foaming at the mouth to steal my beautiful daughter, but if they do I’ll totally grab my gun and go kick their asses . Bryan Mills is the platonic ideal of the Conservative Dad: a cool dude who knows about Beyoncé and the best way to create a homemade torture device using a battery, a good guy with a gun who’s prepared to do Whatever It Takes.

However handsomely and efficiently staged, the actual action in this action movie feels immaterial. It’s a foregone conclusion that Mills is going to get his daughter back, no matter what obstacles are thrown in his way. He’s an invincible juggernaut who does exactly what he threatens to do over the phone: become “a nightmare” for the men who took his daughter. Unlike John Wick (which miraculously cost $5 million less to make), the action’s not well-staged enough to feel all that novel. Mills doesn’t operate in an attractively intriguing world; he just runs down cobblestone Parisian streets and shouts at underwritten henchmen and corrupt detectives, the washed-out look of Michel Abramowicz’s cinematography clearly designed more for economy than style.

That in turn brings us back to the “particular set of skills” scene, a great, efficient work of suspense storytelling that tells the audience everything they need to know about Mills’ plight and what he plans to do about it. In microcosm, it should be celebrated, but it’s hard to blame anyone who would turn off the film after that single, beautiful moment. While Neeson would fine-tune his new career as Boomer God Warrior in other, better films (see his works with Jaume Collet-Serra for reference), Taken remains the Rosetta Stone for an entire subgenre of January Neesons , and for at least that (and not its politics), it should be regarded.

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Well, you can't fault the actors. That must mean it's the fault of the writer and director. "Take" is a monotonous slog through dirgeland, telling a story that seems strung out beyond all reason, with flashbacks upon flashbacks delaying interminably the underwhelming climax.

Minnie Driver and Jeremy Renner star, and both of their performances would distinguish a better screenplay. She is Ana, a house cleaner, the wife of an elementary schoolteacher and the mother of a hyperactive little boy named Jesse ( Bobby Coleman ). Renner plays Saul, a loser at a very low level, who owes $2,000 to a low-life and works for a storage company. He gets fired by stealing possessions from one locker and planting them in a locker where the contents will be auctioned. He pockets the extra cash. Neat, right? I don't know how the boss finds out about it. Just Saul's rotten luck.

It's one of those days. After getting fired, he splits his knuckles while breaking the window of his car, which won't start. Then he begs a pal for the $2,000, and is lent a car and assigned to steal a Range Rover. Then the owner of the Range Rover beats him to a pulp. He finds a gun in the loaner car, slips it in his pocket and goes to a drugstore to get his ailing dad's prescription filled. Seeing the cashier's window, he decides on the spot to rob the store, and in the process, shoots the cashier and takes little Jesse as hostage. If only he hadn't been fired, a lot of people would have been saved a lot of trouble.

These events are doled out parsimoniously by Charles Oliver , who wrote and directed, intercutting with Ana driving her own broken-down car and towing a trailer. She is driving to the prison where Saul is scheduled to be executed, and wants to talk to him before he dies. Although there is an enigmatic phone call over the opening credits that may explain this, I am not at all sure how by this point she seems to have misplaced her husband.

Meanwhile (the whole movie takes place meanwhile), we see Saul sitting chained to a chair, being walked down corridors, being prepared for death and then having a long theological chat with the prison chaplain. The chaplain is certainly a good sport, trying to convince the murderer that everything is part of God's plan. Saul is not too bright, but he cannot quite see how what he has done and what is being done to him represents good planning.

Ana and Saul do indeed meet and talk, but if you're hoping for a conversation along the lines of " Dead Man Walking ," you'll be disappointed. I spent more time wondering how long it takes to try and execute a prisoner in whatever state this is, since Saul still has a not-quite healed scar from the Range Rover beating, and a Band-Aid from the window-smashing.

One critic of the movie accuses it of having a sneaky ending that suggests it might all have been a dream. I guess that would explain the emphasis placed on closeups showing Ana and Saul staring at each other's ID patches on their uniforms. Maybe they imagined each other's lives? But then why would they meet?

The back-seat shot that may have misled the critic is obviously only in Ana's imagination. Little Jesse can't really be there. After all that's happened, do you think she would walk off and leave her son unattended in a prison parking lot?

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Take (2008)

Rated R for some violent and disturbing content

Minnie Driver as Ana

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Written and directed by

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Parents say (53)
Kids say (121)

Based on 53 parent reviews

If you want to put your teenage daughter off travelling - let her watch this

Report this review, great film, movie teaches kids about importance of understanding human trafficking and talking to strangers.

This title has:

Educational value
Great messages

Disturbing scenes made me really uncomfortable.

Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking

Suitable for 12*

Liam neeson agreed to this was he high, adult - intense movie about girls being sex trafficked.

Too much swearing

15+ seems like the right age...

16+ is more or less precise..., fine movie not great.

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Taken Parent Guide

If you can put the troubling theme aside, and approach this as an action movie, you'll see a lot of jason bourne in liam neeson's character..

What would you do to save your daughter? Former spy Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is willing to do anything, even dust off his retired skills and shake-up old contacts after his teen-aged daughter (Maggie Grace) is Taken by a ruthless gang and sold into the sex-trade.

Release date January 30, 2009

Run Time: 89 minutes

Official Movie Site

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by rod gustafson.

Here’s a movie that will help any overly possessive father feel vindicated about their desire to know what their daughter is up to at any given moment. When 17-year-old Kim (Maggie Grace) reveals to her estranged father Bryan (Liam Neeson) that she wants to travel to Paris with her 19-year-old friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy), Dad’s reaction is anything but encouraging. Part of the problem is he’s a retired CIA agent and consequently well aware of the risks two blithe young girls may face in a foreign country.

Sadly, his fears are proven correct just minutes after the duo lands and meet the handsome Peter (Nicolas Giraud) who talks them into sharing a taxi. What they don’t know is their newfound friend works for a criminal network. Shortly after they are dropped off at the apartment where they are planning to stay, a gang barges in and abducts both teens. On the phone to her father when the attackers arrive, Kim’s final screams, along with an abductor’s threatening words, provide the only clues Bryan has to find his daughter. Hopping a jet to France, he immediately sets out to rescue his girl, regardless of who or what may stand in his way.

Other topics parents will face is the sex trade and portrayal of young women who have been lured or forced into a drug dependency to keep them in a semi-conscious state so their services may be sold to willing customers. This film doesn’t include overt nudity or sexual activity, but scenes do depict young women in minimal dress, some of whom are seen with men. Discussions surrounding these issues are included, along with some moderate and mild profanities.

If you can put the troubling theme aside, and approach this as an action movie, you’ll see a lot of Jason Bourne in Liam Neeson’s character. Unstoppable, he is able to demonstrate skills that range from high-speed driving against the flow of a one-way street to nursing a drug overdosed patient back to life with a selection of medications. This guy doesn’t leave us thinking for a moment that he won’t reach his goal and provide us with the foregone conclusion. He’s not quite James Bond, but he will certainly never be taken or stirred.

About author

Rod Gustafson

Taken rating & content info.

Why is Taken rated PG-13? Taken is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for intense sequences of violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, some drug references and language.

This film about a father trying to rescue his daughter from the European sex trade features discussions about that topic, along with many scenes of aggressive violence. The protagonist is able to kill with his hands and confronts a variety of enemies that he strangles, stabs, bludgeons, shoots or tortures (one extended scene shows a man tied to a chair through which electricity is applied). Most of the violence is bloodless, however this is a film about vengeance and no regard is given to asking questions before enacting vigilante force. Women are seen, some of them partially clad and drugged, in a prostitution operation. A young woman states her desire of wanting a man to sleep with her. Language includes some mild and moderate profanities, along with scatological expletives and terms of deity. Social drinking is portrayed. Addictive drugs are used to subdue women.

Page last updated July 25, 2016

Taken Parents' Guide

This movie contains characters of various ethnicities. What roles do the French play? The Albanians? The Arabs? How do these compare to the American characters?

What techniques do the screenwriters use to justify Bryan’s violence? Why can he not turn to the police for help? How is the perceived time constraint (he is told he probably only has 96 hours to find his daughter) used to motivate his actions?

The most recent home video release of Taken movie is May 12, 2009. Here are some details…

Home Video Notes: Taken

Release Date: 12 May 2009

Taken releases to DVD in widescreen, with audio tracks in Dolby Digital 5.1 (English) and Dolby Digital Surround (French and Spanish). Subtitles are available in English, French and Spanish.

There is also a Blu-ray edition of Taken. Presented in widescreen, the disc offers audio tracks in DTS HD Master Audio (English) and Dolby Digital 5.1 (French and Spanish), with subtitles in English, French and Spanish.

Both the DVD and Blu-ray versions of Taken provide the following bonus materials:

- Featurettes: Black OPS Field Manual, Le Making Of, Avant Premiere and Inside Action ( 6 Side by Side Comparisons ).

- Audio Commentary: Director Pierre Morel, Cinematographer Michel Abramowicz and Michel Julienne and Writer Robert Mark Kamen.

- Trailers: Wolverine, Street Fighter, 12 Rounds, Notorious and Possession .

- Digital Copy of Taken.

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The Entire Taken Timeline Explained

Released in 2008, "Taken" is the little action film that could. Produced on a modest budget of just $25 million , the film features a straightforward premise: Liam Neeson plays Bryan Mills, a retired CIA agent. When his daughter, Kim, played by Maggie Grace , is kidnapped by Albanian traffickers while on vacation in Paris, Bryan goes on a rampage across Paris, utilizing his particular set of skills to get her back and kill anyone who gets in his way.

The film was a surprise hit, grossing nearly $227 million worldwide and turning Liam Neeson into an action star. "Taken" spawned two sequels and a television adaptation. All three films are written by the duo of Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen . The original is directed by Pierre Morel, while the two sequels saw Olivier Megaton take the helm. While opinions on the sequels and television series are mixed in comparison to the original, there's no denying Liam Neeson's charisma as an action star.

"Taken" encompasses three movies and a TV series. With that in mind, does the timeline add up? Is the TV show canon to the movies? Does the continuity hold up between all three movies? Is the story of Bryan Mills and his frequently kidnapped family members truly over? For the answer to all these questions and more, read on as we explain the entire timeline of the "Taken" franchise.

Before the movies

The most iconic moment in the entire "Taken" franchise isn't a brutal hand-to-hand fight or an intense gun battle. No, the franchise's most memorable moment arguably comes when Bryan Mills speaks to his daughter's kidnapper on the telephone. He explains to the kidnapper that he doesn't have money to pay ransom, but he does have " a very particular set of skills ," learned over a long career, that he will use to rescue his daughter.

The films never fully explain Bryan's history, but mention is made of "Langley," as in Langley, Virginia, headquarters of the CIA. In the first movie, Bryan describes his former career as a preventer, someone who stopped bad things from happening, but he doesn't elaborate beyond that. In "Taken 3," Inspector Franck Dotzler (Forest Whitaker) does a background check on Mills and his friends, Sam, Mark, and Bernie, who are all close friends in the present day and worked together in the past. Dotzler says of Bryan, "At 21, he's in the army. At 23, he joins the special forces," at which point his record abruptly ends, meaning that's when he was picked up by the CIA. At some point, he marries Lenore (Famke Janssen) and they have Kim, but his dedication to his work means he's a neglectful patriarch and he ends up divorced. Sometime after retiring from the CIA, Bryan moves to Los Angeles to be closer to his estranged daughter, leading to the events of "Taken."

Kim gets taken

The franchise starts with 2009's "Taken," which begins with Bryan trying to reconnect with his daughter, Kim. He fears he may have lost her to her new stepdad, Stuart St. John, played by Xander Berkeley. However, when she wants to go to Paris with her friend Amanda ("Arrow's" Katie Cassidy ), she needs her father's permission since she's only 17 years old. Though he initially resists, his daughter and ex-wife are eventually able to convince him to sign the paper.

When Bryan drives Kim to the airport, he discovers that she's not just going to be looking at museums, but following U2 on a tour across Europe. This enrages him, but he also realizes that his ex and daughter conspired against him because he overreacts and is protective to the point of being overbearing. Well, in this case, his negative traits turn out to be a blessing.

Kim and Amanda are immediately singled out by a spotter for an Albanian human trafficking ring. He shares a cab with them to their apartment and then sends gangsters to kidnap the helpless duo. Kim is on the phone with her father when the attack occurs, which leads to the infamous conversation regarding Bryan's "particular set of skills." When Bryan threatens to find and kill the kidnapper, the criminal coldly responds, "Good luck."

Bryan goes on a rampage across Paris

As any father would, Bryan does whatever he can to get his daughter back. Unlike most middle-aged men, Bryan is proficient with all manners of close quarters hand-to-hand combat, firearms, tracking, and he has access to world-class intelligence services thanks to the expertise of his friend Sam (Leland Orser), who runs a high-end private security company. Thanks to the description Kim gave as she was being kidnapped and a voice analysis, Sam is able to identify the kidnapper as Marko Hoxha, an Albanian gangster from the town of Tropojë. Bryan finds Marko's safe house full of goons and he mercilessly kills them all. Along the way, Bryan finds Amanda, dead from a heroin overdose. Bryan quietly mourns the unfortunate girl, but the movie doesn't have time to dwell on her tragic death; there's more human trafficking scum to kill.

For Marko himself, his death varies depending on whether one watches the PG-13 theatrical cut or the unrated version of "Taken." In both versions, Bryan tortures Marko with electricity as the gangster is tied to a metal chair. In the theatrical cut, Bryan attaches jumper cables to the Marko's chair. In the Unrated version, Bryan plunges two sharp metal rods into Marko's thighs, adding some extra pizazz to the electrifying enhanced interrogation. Either way, both versions end with Bryan learning a name, "Patrice Saint-Clair." Bryan then flips the electricity on, leaving Marko to die a violent — and presumably crispy — death.

Bryan saves his daughter

During his rescue mission, Bryan gets a little help from Jean-Claude Pitrel, a Parisian contact from his time in the CIA. These days, Pitrel is dirty, paid by the Albanians to turn a blind eye to their sex trafficking operation. Bryan threatens Pitrel into giving up Saint-Clair's location (even shooting his wife non-fatally to prove he's not messing around). Bryan infiltrates a slave trading auction run by Saint-Clair, though he's captured before he can rescue Kim. Nevertheless, he escapes his captors and chases Kim's "owners" onto a luxury boat owned by a wealthy Sheikh named Raman.

In a thrilling action sequence , Bryan kills just about everybody on the boat in spectacular fashion, from brutal melee takedowns to heated exchanges of gunfire. Finally, it's down to Bryan and Raman, who's holding Kim as a hostage. He begins to utter the phrase, "We can negotiate," but before he can finish, Bryan puts a bullet right between his eyes, ending the threat and saving his daughter. Kim is in disbelief that her father actually came for her, but is nonetheless grateful for the rescue.

Singing lessons

"Taken" concludes with Bryan reuniting his daughter with her mother and stepfather, but there's one last scene before the movie ends. Early on in the film, Bryan's tough guy credentials are established when he disarms and incapacitates a knife-wielding assailant while working security for a pop star, Sheerah, played by Holly Valance. To express her gratitude, Sheerah offers to introduce Kim to her vocal teacher and see if she has what it takes to become a pop star. The final scene of the film has Bryan and Kim meet Sheerah for a music lesson. The door closes behind them as they all move forward with their lives, ending the movie on a low-key note about moving on from trauma.

Sheerah claims that if her vocal coach says Kim can sing, then she can sing. While the results of the vocal lesson are never disclosed to the viewer, it's likely Kim didn't have the natural chops to become a pop star. "Taken 2" makes fleeting mention of Kim's ongoing music lessons, but "Taken 3" quietly drops this storyline entirely. Maybe Kim can carry a tune, but can she rock an entire stadium full of screaming fans? We'll never know.

Taken 2 and the cycle of revenge

"Taken 2" opens with a scene set in Tropojë, Albania. If that sounds familiar, it's because it's the hometown of Marko, the leader of the gang who kidnapped Kim and Amanda. The local townspeople are mourning the loss of their friends via a mass funeral for all of the Tropojë natives that Bryan killed during the events of the first movie. Marko's father, Murad (Rade Šerbedžija) swears revenge.

To achieve this goal, Murad and his men attack the home of Jean-Claude Pitrel, whose business card was found at the house where Bryan killed all the Albanian gangsters. Bryan had used it to disguise himself as Pitrel and it must have been left at the scene by accident, perhaps knocked out of his pocket during a scuffle. Bryan's mistake proves tragic for Pitrel; it's strongly implied that he, his wife, and their children are all tortured and murdered by Murad's men after he gives up Bryan's identity.

One of Murad's men, the brother of one of Bryan's victims (it's unclear if he's supposed to be Marko's brother, he just says that Bryan killed his brother) learns that Bryan will be going to Istanbul. The plan is to intercept him there and exact their revenge for their fallen comrades.

Lenore and Bryan get taken

In the years between "Taken" and its sequel, the marriage between Lenore and Stuart St. John has fallen onto hard times. They're all but separated, and early in "Taken 2" Stuart spitefully cancels a vacation they had previously planned. Bryan invites his ex-wife and daughter to accompany him to Istanbul. He has a security job to do, but when it's done he'll have a few days for a genuine vacation. Little does he know, he's just placed a target on their backs, as well as his own.

Kim stays at the hotel while Lenore and Bryan go on something of a friendly date. But before anything romantic can happen, Bryan notices that they're being followed. Despite his best efforts, he and Lenore get taken (that's the name of the movie, after all), though he's able to warn Kim. Thanks to her father's phone call, Kim manages to escape from armed gunmen who murder multiple innocent people in their pursuit of the young woman.

Following her father's orders, Kim grabs a gun and several grenades from Bryan's secure briefcase. While on the phone, she detonates one of the grenades, the sound of which her father is able to use to discern his position relative to Kim. It's a bit complicated and stretches believability, but the scene ends with Kim throwing the gun down a rooftop chimney, which Bryan is able to use to kill his captors and escape.

Bryan goes on a rampage across Istanbul

From here on out, it's business as usual for a "Taken" movie, with Bryan killing all the bad guys and saving his family. The action isn't as graceful as the original, relying more on quick cuts and rapid camera movement instead of exciting fight choreography, but it gets the job done. In the end, Bryan confronts Murad in a Turkish bathhouse and offers to let him live in exchange for peace. Bryan puts his gun down and walks away. However, Murad picks it up, aims at Bryan's back, and pulls the trigger. It was a test: the gun is empty, and now Bryan knows that Murad will never stop. Bryan grabs the old gangster patriarch and slams him into a towel hook, impaling his head and killing him instantly. This kill could be an homage to "Midnight Express," another Turkey-set film in which a villain is killed off in an identical (but more R-rated) manner.

Murad mentions that he has two more sons, but they never appear in "Taken 3," so they must have learned from their father's mistake; anyone who goes up against Bryan Mills is doomed to die a brutal death. That doesn't bode well for the villains in "Taken 3."

Kim passes her driver's test

Calling back to the film's first act, which ended with Kim taking a singing lesson, "Taken 2" ends with Kim finally passing her driver's test. It was mentioned she had failed, more than once, earlier in the movie. To celebrate, Kim and her parents (sans Stuart!) get milkshakes at a little shop on the pier. Kim invites a special guest: her boyfriend, Jamie, played by Luke Grimes. Earlier in the film, Kim had kept her boyfriend a secret from her father, worrying that he might overreact. Her formally introducing them shows that Kim and her father have developed a greater level of trust in one another.

To be honest, it's a pretty trite ending compared to the first "Taken." Whereas that film ended with a subtle thematic overtone involving moving on from traumatic events, the ending of "Taken 2" feels almost like the final tag at the end of a domestic sitcom, where everybody has one last laugh before the credits roll. At least "Taken 2" doesn't end with a corny freeze frame, for what that's worth.

Taken 3 and losing Lenore

Released in 2014, "Taken 3" is the grand finale of the "Taken" trilogy. Granted, it's not particularly grand and it doesn't feel like a finale, but it is the last installment, which makes it the finale by default. Unlike the previous films, which saw the action go down in exotic locales like Paris and Istanbul, "Taken 3" is set entirely in the greater Los Angeles area.

From the outset, Bryan is on much better terms with his ex-wife and daughter. Surprisingly, Lenore is still married to Stuart, but their marriage is on the rocks. Lenore even kisses her ex-husband in a moment of weakness, which Bryan clearly enjoys, but ultimately refutes. A man of honor, he insists that Lenore resolve her marital issues with Stuart before moving on. Stuart accuses Bryan of having some kind of affair his wife, and demands that the ex-husband stay away from Lenore. This time around, Stuart is played by Dougray Scott , not Xander Berkeley.

Just when the viewer might think "Taken 3" is a domestic drama and not an action movie, Bryan finds Lenore's dead body at his apartment. Before he can mourn his dead love or even properly process what happened, he's accosted by a pair of cops. Rather than allow himself to be arrested and framed for her murder, he knocks out the cops and goes on the run.

The Russians did it

While unraveling the conspiracy against him, Bryan must evade Forest Whitaker, his police pursuer. You could argue that Whitaker's character, Inspector Franck Dotzler, is basically a less charismatic rip-off of Tommy Lee Jones from "The Fugitive." The time dedicated to this new character is a large part of why, at nearly two hours in length, "Taken 3" is the longest entry in the trilogy by a wide margin.

After waterboarding Stuart, accusing him of murdering his own wife, Bryan gets Lenore's second husband to admit to shady dealings with a Russian gangster. Stuart says their business dealings went sideways and Oleg Malankov killed Lenore to incentivize Stuart to pay him back. With tech support from his trusty pal, Sam, Bryan attacks Malankov's penthouse apartment, killing the gangster and all of his bodyguards. The battle is much gorier in the unrated version , with bloody gunshot wounds aplenty; the PG-13 theatrical cut is tame in comparison, even using CGI to remove blood from Bryan and Malankov's faces during their fatal encounter.

Actually, Stuart did it, and he's taken Kim!

Before dying, Malankov reveals the truth: Stuart is responsible for Lenore's death. He had her killed in order to collect a life insurance policy to pay off Malankov. Then he decided to pit Bryan and Malankov against each other; if Bryan killed Malankov, Stuart would be able to keep the millions of dollars in life insurance payouts. Once his plan is revealed, Stuart kidnaps Kim, shoots Sam (don't worry, he survives), and flees to his private jet.

Bryan catches up to the jet just in time, and smashes its front landing gear with Malankov's fancy sports car, preventing the villain from fleeing into the sunset. The final showdown sees Stuart holding Kim at gunpoint, echoing her predicament at the end of the first "Taken" film. This time, Kim doesn't wait for her father to rescue her; she breaks free from Stuart's grasp, giving her father a clean shot. Bryan shoots Stuart, but refrains from finishing him off at his daughter's insistence. However, he knows that Stuart will use his money and connections to get a minimal prison sentence, so Bryan threatens him; Bryan promises, when Stuart goes free, that he will be waiting, and he'll mete out some real justice when that time comes.

Kim is pregnant

"Taken 3" ends with Kim revealing to her father that she's pregnant. Her boyfriend, Jimmy, played by Jonny Weston, is the father. It's not entirely clear if Jimmy is the same character as Jamie from "Taken 2," but their names are eerily similar, so it's possible they were supposed to be the same character until Luke Grimes declined to sign on for "Taken 3." Kim actually found out she was pregnant in the film's first act, but couldn't bring herself to tell her dad right away.

The film's final lines pay tribute to Kim's late mother, with Kim and Jimmy promising to name their baby after Lenore if it's a girl. Hopefully, that means they'll call it "Lenny" if it's a boy, since that was Bryan's affectionate nickname for his ex-wife. As an ending, it feels more appropriate than the milkshakes scene in "Taken 2," but it still lacks the impact one would expect from the end of a trilogy. Overall, "Taken 3" doesn't feel like the end of the "Taken" saga, but just another entry in an increasingly generic action franchise. The recasting of Stuart makes his betrayal less compelling, and the tacked on presence of Forest Whitaker feels like a superfluous waste of one of cinema's most beloved actors. It's not the worst movie in the world, but there's nothing in "Taken 3" that isn't done better in at least half a dozen other Liam Neeson movies .

Taken: The Series is non-canon

Following the conclusion of the "Taken" trilogy in cinemas, the franchise continued in the form of "Taken," a television series that aired for two seasons on NBC. While the show debuted to relatively decent ratings and was initially successful, creative shakeups following the first season resulted in much of the cast being fired and replaced with newcomers for a vastly retooled Season 2 , which led to a significant drop in ratings and an untimely cancellation . Today, the show is regarded more as a missed opportunity than a proper part of the "Taken" saga, for one huge reason — it's not canon to the film series.

Rather than being a proper prequel to the "Taken" movies, the television series shares no continuity with the movies. Presumably as an effort to save on costs, the show isn't set in the past, but the present day, which makes it impossible to reconcile its events with those of the movies. The show should feature younger versions of the characters audiences know from the films. Instead, it features Clive Standen as a character named Bryan Mills, who simply is not the same person portrayed by Liam Neeson in the film series. Today, the show is little more than a forgotten franchise footnote that's barely inspired by its own source material.

Will there be a Taken 4?

While "Taken 3" was marketed as the final chapter in the trilogy, nothing ever really ends in Hollywood — as long as there's still money to be made. It's hard to imagine a "Taken" movie without Liam Neeson, though Luc Besson had no issue replacing Jason Statham with Ed Skrein for "The Transporter: Refueled." It's possible the producer might decide to repeat this trajectory with "Taken," rebooting the series with a brand new star, but we'd much rather see a proper "Taken 4" starring Liam Neeson , the one and only Bryan Mills.

Neeson was paid a whopping $20 million to star in 2014's "Taken 3," and while the film brought in less money than "Taken 2," it still managed to rake in an impressive $327 million worldwide on a budget of under $50 million. It's been nearly a decade since then, so a new "Taken" sequel has the potential to feel fresh and new. "Taken 3" ends with Kim revealing to her father that she's pregnant with a baby. Knowing Bryan Mills, it's only a matter of time before his grandchild gets kidnapped, forcing the retired CIA agent to utilize his "particular set of skills" once again.

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Is the movie "Taken" (2008) worth watching?

(I have both standard and Blu-Ray versions, if that makes a difference)

[EDIT] - For those of you who saying "Who's the new guy? Read IMDB! And (insert Chris Crocker voice): Leave reddit alone!" I understand where you're coming from. If it means anything, I did look at rottentomatoes; Taken scored in the mid-40s. Solid, but not exactly stellar. Then why did I ask reddit? Because I trust reddit. I may be a new user (this is my first post), but I've been visiting the site for some time now, and you guys just think the way I do. So I wanted to know what you think. That's all.

tl;dr version : reddit opinion > actual movie critics.

Sad realization: None of my future posts will ever do as well as this first one.

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“Inside Out 2,” starring a personified Anxiety, continued to resonate with moviegoers as the No. 1 film in North America for a third weekend. The dread-infused prequel “A Quiet Place: Day One” also struck a cultural nerve, arriving to stronger-than-expected ticket sales.

But ticket buyers largely rebuffed Kevin Costner’s three-hour vanity project , “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1,” the supposed start of an Old West movie series that was once headed straight to a streaming service before managing to get bumped up to the big screen.

“ Inside Out 2 ” from Pixar was on pace to collect $57.4 million, for a three-week total of roughly $470 million in the United States and Canada, according to estimates by box office analysts on Sunday. The well-reviewed sequel has reached $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales. No movie has reached that sales threshold since “Barbie,” which was released in July 2023.

For the weekend, “ A Quiet Place: Day One ” was expected to generate about $53 million in domestic ticket sales — more than 30 percent above prerelease analyst expectations, which are based on surveys that track moviegoer interest. “A Quiet Place: Day One,” which cost Paramount an estimated $67 million to make, stars Lupita Nyong’o as a cancer patient who, with her cat, Frodo, must navigate a horrific invasion by alien creatures with extra-sensitive ears.

Prequels are risky. Prominent misfires have included “ Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga ,” “The First Omen” and “ Lightyear .” Fans already know what ultimately happens later in the story, making it hard for studio marketers to generate excitement, and prequels often lack the stars who helped make the franchises popular in the first place. Emily Blunt, for instance, headlined the first two “Quiet Place” movies.

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Why Gollum Never Wore the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings

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Sméagol used the one ring a lot at first, once sméagol became gollum, he used the ring less, the one ring wore gollum out, gollum's self-loathing made possession of the ring a battle, the one ring grew tired of gollum, gollum did not refuse the ring.

In Peter Jackson's films, Gollum never wore the One Ring.
The novel offers multiple reasons that Gollum did not want to wear the One Ring.
Gollum's relationship with the One Ring was more complicated than it seemed.

In The Lord of the Rings , the One Ring tempted its bearers to wear it and slip into the wraith world, thus appearing invisible to all others. However, despite being the character most affected by the One Ring's influence, Gollum is only shown wearing the Ring once in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies. He put it on after discovering the One Ring as Sméagol, but from there to fall into the fires of Mount Doom with it, Gollum only ever held his Precious.

Similarly, in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit novels, the protagonists did not witness Gollum wearing the One Ring . However, according to Tolkien's narration, he had worn it many times in the past. Tolkien explained why Gollum did not usually need to wear the One Ring and, more intriguingly, why he avoided doing so whenever possible.

The article was updated on July 6, 2024, by Christopher Raley: Gollum is one of the chief villains of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , but he is also the most sympathetic. His divided desires make him both fearful and strangely relatable. This article was updated with additional analysis about Gollum's relationship to the Ring and to conform to current CBR standards.

He Was Already Cruel, And The Ring Made Him Worse

Gollum looks scared in front of a dark background in The Lord Of The Rings.

How Old Is Gollum In The Lord Of The Rings?

The Lord of the Rings is a universe filled with mystery. But one of the most pressing ties to the age of its most recognized character: Gollum.

Long-Term Ringbearers	Time Spent as Ringbearer	Fate of the One Ring
Sauron	S. A. 1600 - S. A. 3441	Taken by Isildur after he killed Sauron
Isildur	S. A. 3441 - T. A. 2	Lost in the Gladden River after Orcs killed Isildur
Gollum	T. A. 2463 - T. A. 2941	Stolen by Bilbo
Bilbo	T. A. 2941 - T. A. 3001	Given to Frodo
Frodo	T. A. 3001 - T. A. 3019	Taken and accidentally destroyed by Gollum

Before transforming into the creature known as Gollum, Sméagol used the One Ring often. According to Gandalf's description of Gollum's backstory in The Fellowship of the Ring , Sméagol put the One Ring on his finger immediately after he killed Déagol for it . When he returned home, he realized that wearing the One Ring made him invisible.

Even before becoming the monster of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , Sméagol was cruel and unscrupulous. These characteristics made him predisposed to murdering his friend within mere moments of seeing the shiny trinket. By comparison, Bilbo was a good-natured hobbit, so though the One Ring influenced him, he did not completely succumb to its thrall, even over decades.

Tolkien portrays Hobbits as stubborn creatures who cling to their ways faster than anything else.
Though Bilbo used the ring during its time with him, he ultimately lets it go when Gandalf compels him to.

Because he was already predisposed to acting viciously, Sméagol used his newfound powers of invisibility to commit heinous acts against his hobbit neighbors. He began his reign of terror by spying on and stealing from them, but this soon devolved into attacking his community outright.

In Part, This Was Because He Needed It Less

Gollum talks to his reflection in the water in The Lord of the Rings.

Because of these crimes, Sméagol's grandmother exiled him, forcing him to wander the wilderness for the rest of his days. He continued to use his invisibility to catch fish more easily with his bare hands. As Sméagol transformed into Gollum, he grew averse to warmth and light, so he dwelled in the caves of the Misty Mountains.

Gollum took up residence in the Misty Mountains for almost 500 years, preying on small or unwary Goblins.
In The Hobbit , Gollum still chooses to wear the ring because he goes back to his island to find it so he can kill Bilbo.

He did not need invisibility under the cover of darkness, so he used the One Ring less and less. He still sometimes slipped it on to hunt Goblins or attack disgusting Orcs , who usually used torches to illuminate their surroundings, but according to Tolkien, this was an uncommon occurrence. Considering Gollum's obsession with the One Ring, it is surprising that he rarely used it. However, another reason further dictated its lack of use — a reason expounded upon in The Lord of the Rings .

According To Tolkien, Gollum Grew Tired Of Wearing It

A Cut Lord of the Rings Scene Almost Turned Frodo Into Gollum

The Lord of the Rings films almost included a dark flash of Frodo's fate if the One Ring broke him, complete with his own Gollum form.

The One Ring took a physical and mental toll on its bearer. In the chapter "Riddles in the Dark" from The Hobbit , Tolkien explained, "Gollum used to wear it at first, till it tired him; and then he kept it in a pouch next his skin, till it galled him; and now usually he hid it in a hole in the rock on his island."

Sméagol was a type of river-dwelling hobbit called a Stoor.
In "The Shadow of the Past," Tolkien said that Sméagol's family was "large and wealthier than most."

In The Lord of the Rings , Bilbo compares the One Ring's detrimental effects to butter being spread too thin. Though neither Gollum nor Bilbo knew it, this feeling began the transformation into a formless wraith, much like the Nazgûl Frodo fought on Weathertop . Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey emphasized Gollum's obsession with the One Ring by removing the aspect of him hiding it in a hole. Instead, he kept it on his body at all times, and Bilbo only found it because it fell out of his loincloth when he battled an Orc.

His Need For the Ring Mirrors Addiction

Bilbo threatens Gollum (who can't seem him) with Sting in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Gollum was attached to his Precious, but his feelings towards the One Ring were more complicated than that. According to Gandalf in the chapter "The Shadow of the Past" from The Fellowship of the Ring , Gollum both "hated and loved" the One Ring. Gandalf also noted that this dichotomy mirrored Gollum's self-hatred and the constant internal conflict between his two personalities . Half of him was a vicious monster who would do anything for the One Ring, while his other half desperately desired connection and friendship with other living creatures.

Sauron personally interrogated Gollum, making him one of the few characters in T he Lord of the Rings to see the Dark Lord's physical form.
When Tolkien first wrote The Hobbit , he did not intend for the One Ring to be as powerful or corruptive as it was in The Lord of the Rings .

Gollum's desire for the One Ring was akin to addiction ; he knew to an extent that the One Ring was harmful, and he battled against his craving for it but could not help himself. Despite his vile acts, Gollum was a tragic figure in The Lord of the Rings , as he was a victim of the One Ring's corruption.

It Did Not Want Him To Wear It

Gollum smirking in The Lord of the Rings

Before the Ring, Gollum Was a Unique Type of Hobbit

Fans of The Lord of the Rings films may not know much about Gollum's identity as a Stoor Hobbit, but Tolkien goes into great detail in his books.

The One Ring had a will of its own — or, more accurately, its will was an extension of Sauron's. In The Lord of the Rings , Tolkien often treated the One Ring like a sentient being who could make decisions. The Ring's goal was to return to Sauron, so it sought escape from bearers who would not facilitate that end.

In one of his letters, Tolkien wrote that Sméagol and Déagol were related, which he did not indicate in the novels.
Andy Serkis, who provided voice acting and motion capture for Gollum in Jackson's films , also played Sméagol.

For example, in "The Shadow of the Past," Gandalf said it "betrayed" Isildur by slipping off his finger in the Gladden River. For this reason, it made its way from Gollum to Bilbo. The change that Jackson's film made to the One Ring's discovery also emphasized its seeming consciousness, as it bounced directly towards Bilbo, who would then bring it out of the cave in which Gollum had trapped it for centuries.

The Ring Refused Him

Gollum was not useful to the One Ring. His existence was so completely solitary that the odds of it coming into contact with a servant of Sauron were low. He often encountered Orcs in his caves, but he killed them too quickly for them to either apprehend him or send word to Sauron. Further, unlike many other characters in The Lord of the Rings , Gollum did not have high ambitions that the One Ring could prey upon; this made him more difficult to manipulate.

Boromir wanted to ring for the best purposes, to save his people from the power of Mordor, but sought Boromir with a power greater than what the Son of Gondor could withstand.
In the Movies, Jackson personified the ring by giving it a way of whispering its temptation that was unique to each character it encountered.

It also made him more pathetic to the Ring, which may account for at least part of the constant friction between the two personalities. Jackson picked up this theme in The Two Towers . When Gollum contemplated what he would do with the One Ring's power, he only thought of feasting on copious amounts of fish. Not long after that, Sméagol and Gollum argued while Frodo and Sam were asleep. Sméagol called on dignity but forgot he had to tell Gollum to leave. Gollum did, and for a short time, Sméagol was free.

But even when Gollum returned to Sméagol, his need for the ring was only for himself. He knew fully that Sauron would take the ring and regain bodily form, casting poor Gollum aside. Sméagol couldn't stand the thought of that, and he couldn't tolerate Frodo's goal to destroy it. Caught between the two, Gollum ultimately pursued the thing he loved and hated, likely knowing it would avail him nothing.

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings is a long-running fantasy franchise created by J.R.R. Tolkien. The core series consists of four primary books: The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, the Two Towers, and The Return of the King, all of which have been adapted into films. The Lord of the Rings core franchise centers around Frodo Baggins, a living being known as a hobbit, and a group of heroes from the various kingdoms such as the kingdom of man, the kingdom of dwarves, and the kingdom of elves. Together with the great wizard Gandalf, the group will embark on a perilous quest across Middle Earth to take The One Ring to Mount Doom to destroy it, before it can corrupt anyone and return to the hands of the evil entity known as Sauron, hellbent on conquering all of Middle Earth. The original novel/prequel films, The Hobbit, stars Frodo's uncle Bilbo Baggins as he embarks on a quest from the comfort of his home and seeks the treasure of a dragon known as Smaug. Bilbo stumbles upon The One Ring on his quest, and finds himself amidst a great war. The most recent media for the franchise is the currently airing The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, airing exclusively on Prime Video.

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COMMENTS

Taken movie review & film summary (2009)
The movie proves two things. (1) Liam Neeson can bring undeserved credibility to most roles just by playing them, and (2) Luc Besson, the co-writer, whose actioner-assembly line produced this film, turns out high-quality trash, and sometimes much better (" The Fifth Element ," " Taxi ," " The Transporter ," " La Femme Nikita ," even "The Three ...
Taken
Taken. PG-13 Released Jan 30, 2009 1h 31m Action Mystery & Thriller. TRAILER for Taken: Trailer 1. List. 60% Tomatometer 178 Reviews. 85% Audience Score 250,000+ Ratings. Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson ...
Taken Movie Review
What you will—and won't—find in this movie. Parents need to know that this "hard PG-13" thriller seems just a drop of blood or two away from an R rating. Not only is there a great deal of violence, but a disturbing subplot centers on young women being kidnapped into the seedy world of sex slavery. The themes of revenge, vigilantism, sex and ...
Taken (2008)
Taken: Directed by Pierre Morel. With Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Leland Orser, Jon Gries. A retired CIA agent travels across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris.
Taken (2008)
BA_Harrison. 26 January 2012. Much of what occurs in Liam Neeson thriller Taken is incredibly implausible, but with suspension of disbelief turned up to eleven, the film proves to be an extremely satisfying viewing experience—a brutal action flick that effectively exploits that most basic of human emotions: the desire to see the wicked punished.
Taken (film)
Taken is a 2008 English-language French action-thriller film directed by Pierre Morel and written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen.It stars Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Katie Cassidy, Famke Janssen, Leland Orser and Holly Valance.In the film, Bryan Mills, an ex-CIA officer, sets to track down his teenage daughter Kim and her best friend Amanda after they are kidnapped by Albanian human ...
'Taken' Review: Vigilante Daddy Avenges Kidnapping
Taken. Directed by Pierre Morel. Action, Crime, Thriller. PG-13. 1h 33m. By Manohla Dargis. Jan. 29, 2009. "Taken" stars a dour Liam Neeson as a big bad papa bear on the rampaging hunt for his ...
Taken
Taken - Metacritic. 2009. PG-13. Twentieth Century Fox. 1 h 30 m. Summary When his estranged daughter is kidnapped in Paris, a former spy sets out to find her at any cost. Relying on his special skills, he tracks down the ruthless gang that abducted her and launches a one-man war to bring them to justice and rescue his daughter. [20th Century Fox]
Taken
Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2011. As Kim, Maggie Grace is a bit old to convincingly portray a boppy underage teenager, although she appears to be giving her best to a one ...
Taken Review
Taken, a revenge action-thriller from Transporter producer Luc Besson and District B13 director Pierre Morel, follows Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), a former special ops agent who is out to rescue his ...
Taken
Positive Elements. Throughout Taken, Bryan demonstrates deep devotion to Kim—both before and after her abduction.We watch as he looks longingly at old birthday pictures and home movies of her. Knowing that she longs to be a pop singer, he gets Kim a state-of-the-art karaoke machine and uses a hard-won connection to give her a leg up in the industry.
Taken Review
Taken is an uncompromising, visceral film. It delves into the horrifying world of female kidnapping and sex slavery. French director/writer Luc Besson pens the script and produces the film. His ...
Taken (2008)
Summaries. A retired CIA agent travels across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris. Seventeen year-old Kim is the pride and joy of her father Bryan Mills. Bryan is a retired agent who left the Central Intelligence Agency to be near Kim in California.
Taken Review
By Vic Holtreman. Published Jan 30, 2009. While parts of it are a stretch, overall Liam Neeson makes Taken an extremely satisfying action flick. Screen Rant reviews Taken. My opinion of Taken may be skewed - I have a daughter. So a movie that shows a father's daughter being kidnapped and the father going after the perpetrators with a vengeance ...
Movie Review: Taken (2008)
What Taken is, is a good middle of the road action movie, that is on par with the likes of Seagal's and Snipe's finest (i.e., Under Siege and Passenger 57 ). It also proves to the rest of us (mostly me) that there is more to France than fine wines, croissants and surrender flags. Critical Movie Critic Rating: 3.
The Taken Movies Ranked From Worst To Best
That said, let's rank the seven "Taken" movies from worst to best. 7. Taken 3 (a.k.a. Taken 7) 20th Century Fox. The coolest thing about 2014's "Taken 3" is the name of its director, Olivier ...
Classic Film Review: Ten Years Later, Taken Is Still Defined By Its
It's a testament to the strength of that scene, which was indelible enough that the film's own marketing largely revolved around it. The gamble worked, too; Taken 's $25 million budget made its eventual $226 million box office take a particular miracle, opening up a new subgenre of mid-budget Eurotrash action movies and a career revival ...
Take movie review & film summary (2008)
That must mean it's the fault of the writer and director. "Take" is a monotonous slog through dirgeland, telling a story that seems strung out beyond all reason, with flashbacks upon flashbacks delaying interminably the underwhelming climax. Minnie Driver and Jeremy Renner star, and both of their performances would distinguish a better screenplay.
Parent reviews for Taken
16+ is more or less precise... Although the movie may have some iffy scenes involving the dark world of human trafficking, there is no actual sex or nudity in the movie. The violence is very moderate, barely any blood. Language is moderate. Liam Neeson is awesome in this movie. Very good action movie.
Taken Movie Review for Parents
The most recent home video release of Taken movie is May 12, 2009. Here are some details… Home Video Notes: Taken. Release Date: 12 May 2009. Taken releases to DVD in widescreen, with audio tracks in Dolby Digital 5.1 (English) and Dolby Digital Surround (French and Spanish). Subtitles are available in English, French and Spanish.
Holy crap! Taken(2008) is good! : r/movies
Holy crap! Taken (2008) is good! It's been a LONG time since I've seen such a good movie. WOW. also known as Liam Neeson Kills Everyone. Also known as a perfect movie - 30 seconds of plot, followed by an hour and a half of ass kicking, followed by 30 seconds of plot. But seriously, I do love this movie. Daughter Kidnapped, Father Murders ...
The Entire Taken Timeline Explained
The Entire Taken Timeline Explained. 20th Century Fox. By Zak Wojnar / Sept. 14, 2022 7:26 pm EST. Released in 2008, "Taken" is the little action film that could. Produced on a modest budget of ...
Is the movie "Taken" (2008) worth watching? : r/AskReddit
more reply. more reply. More replies. biteableniles. •• Edited. I enjoyed the hell out of Taken. I didn't like Neeson before but now I'm alright with him. It's worth watching. EDIT: Note to self, Neeson is popular and you now have a lot of new movies on your Netflix list.
Costner's Costly 'Horizon' Bites Box Office Dust
"Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1" was a distant third at theaters in North America this weekend, as "Inside Out 2" dominated, reaching $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales.
Why Gollum Never Wore the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings
The One Ring took a physical and mental toll on its bearer. In the chapter "Riddles in the Dark" from The Hobbit, Tolkien explained, "Gollum used to wear it at first, till it tired him; and then he kept it in a pouch next his skin, till it galled him; and now usually he hid it in a hole in the rock on his island.". Sméagol was a type of river-dwelling hobbit called a Stoor.

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The Taken Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

7. Taken 3 (a.k.a. Taken 7)

6. Unknown (a.k.a. Taken 2)

5. Taken 2 (a.k.a. Taken 4)

4. Non-Stop (a.k.a. Taken 5)

3. A Walk Among the Tombstones (a.k.a. Taken 6)

2. Taken (a.k.a. Taken 1)

1. The Grey (a.k.a. Taken 3)

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Classic Film Review: Ten Years Later, Taken Is Still Defined By Its Most Iconic Scene

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