Taken

“Taken“ –
Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen

I love this and it is rare to find an action/adventure flick that isn’t overloaded with special effects and such stunts as to be entirely unrealistic. This was hot! Neeson hasn’t been on screen much lately but he definitely has Harrison Ford potential. In fact he is much more intriguing that Ford can ever be with that slight accent and loping gait. The premise is that a divorced Dad clearly a former government operative has lost his wife and daughter to years of neglect and his ex remarries a very wealthy but powerless businessman. Powerless because when Neeson’s daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) goes off to Europe for the summer and is TAKEN by a prostitution ring, Neeson has to leap into action to save her. The rule of thumb is that if not found in the first 48 hours, the changes of her being recovered become slim to none. This was a wild ride complete with Eastern European mafia figures and French government operatives gone bad. This ranks up there with my favorite Nicolas Cage caper “Gone in 60 Seconds.”