|  | Actors: Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
List Price: $29.98
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Rating:  379 reviews
Sales Rank: 341
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 93 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: FOXD2255352D
UPC: 024543553526
EAN: 0024543553526
ASIN: B001TODCII
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: May 12, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: DVD case/artwork is damaged and/or cut, not affecting the DVD. DVD itself is in Good condition. Ships quickly with FREE shipping upgrade!
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 46-50 of 379
 Father knows best...death to any and all who threaten his little girl December 6, 2009
Nathan Andersen (Florida)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is a retired and divorced ex-spy, who now lives only for his estranged daughter. The trouble is, while she seems happy enough to see him when he manages to meet her, usually she won't give him the time of day. She's got all she wants from her enormously wealthy stepfather, and all she wants from her real father is permission to go to Paris. He's reluctant because, as an ex-spy, I guess, he knows that Europe can be much more dangerous than most people think, especially for a naive young woman. It turns out he's right, because the moment his daughter arrives with her friend in Paris, she's targeted and kidnapped by sex traffickers. She manages to get a phone call off to her dad before she's abducted and immediately he's on the case - figures out who they are and plans do do much more than kick butt on his way to saving her.
Directed by Pierre Morel, this film has all the marks of its producer and writer, Luc Besson. Mills is a classic Bessonian hero - who does what he does without remorse, and ruthlessly, but all in the service of good old-fashioned family values. Luc Besson's heroes tend to be jaded professionals, highly competent at killing but without direction in their lives until they discover that they are meant to save some innocent, to fix some kind of family crisis. It's a weird mix of visceral violence and sentimentality. He takes on anyone who gets in his way, anyone who threatens his daughter, anyone who even refuses to help him on his way, and, according to the bizarre but effective Hollywood action film logic that Bresson distills to its essence, it's all okay, it's all morally acceptable, and it all comes out in the end. The basic principle is that the ends always justifies the means, especially if family is at stake. In films like Die Hard, there's something else at stake (lots of innocent lives, money, national security), but family is at the heart of it, and in this film that becomes the whole of it, sex trafficking merely becomes the vehicle, the focus for a father's rage. Of course if you stop to think about it, you have to realize that this guy is a psychopath, and that there are proper channels for a reason, given the number of innocent lives he puts at risk on his quest to stop the bad guys - even though most of the bad guys he actually dispatches are truly bad. Still, it's strange how easy it is, watching a film like this, to buy all that, and how hard it is not to. It's a precise, taut, effective, action thriller, and Liam Neeson brings just the right mix of emotional intensity and ruthlessness for the audience to care about him and his emotional quest in spite of themselves.
solid for the most part December 6, 2009
B. E Jackson (Pennsylvania)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Remember last year when you seen NOTHING but previews for this film? I remember this VERY well. The hype this movie received was almost too much to take! It got to the point where the hype alone was turning me off.
Well it's been a year later, and I watched Taken tonight for the very first time trying to forget about those annoyingly repetitive commercials.
I started out VERY disappointed. I have to be honest about that. The very beginning of the movie shows the single father having memories of his daughter's birthday party from when she was just a little girl. We've seen the same thing a MILLION times in other movies. I was preparing myself for a very overrated and predictable film. Some of the scenes even had a low budget feel to them.
The next 20 minutes didn't win me over either. The father goes to his daughter's birthday party (he wasn't dreaming about it this time) to bring her a gift.
Then the fathers ex-wife enters the picture. The two of them start talking and obviously they don't get along (filled with sarcastic little shots in between of course!)
Of course, her new husband enters the picture as well, pretends to be friends with the daughter's father, but you know very well they could never be friends because they talk in a way where it's plainly obvious they don't care about each other in the slightest, and then the father leaves the birthday party and returns home.
That's the first 20 minutes of film- horribly predictable story-telling we must have seen a million times. So it's VERY important to keep watching past those 20 minutes.
When the actual story kicks in concerning the daughter having to get her fathers approval to take a vacation to France (by way of a signature signing taking place in a restaurant) *this* is when the plot development really gets interesting.
The father is reluctant to send his daughter to a foreign country for safety reasons, but eventually he gives in. Otherwise he'd been considered a horrible father.
When the daughter arrives to France with her one friend, you see them having fun and dancing around in a hotel room. The daughter walks into another room, and through a window she sees her friend being attacked and kidnapped by three or four strange men that walked into the room. She panics, so she hides under a bed.
This is where you have to take into consideration the storyline is fictional, because the daughter calls up the father while hiding under a bed, and tells him what's going on with her friend.
The father then calmly and precisely gives his daughter instructions on how to handle the situation.
I was like "Are you SERIOUS!" Most fathers would become emotional, confused and worried if such a situation were to present itself. Apparently this father thought he was some kind of superman who not only knew how to tell a darn good well-prepared speech, but also had an ability to remain completely calm over the phone WHILE the daughter was being taken away by the bad guys!
How is this possible? Only in Hollywood. Besides those little problems, the rest of the storyline is rather amazingly action-packed and features lots of shootings, violence, and killings, which is the norm for these kind of films. I really enjoyed the movie after getting past all those predictable and impossible to believe moments.
So the film is great in the end.
 Excellent Action Thriller. December 5, 2009
S. A. ROBBINS (USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I really liked this movie. It was intriguing from the standpoint as a "what if", that the kidnappers made the mistake of stealing someone's daughter whose father is an extremely dangerous and capable ex-spy. A man who will be "a nightmare" to the kidnappers. Someone with the experience, know how and total lack of conscience when it comes to dealing with people like the kidnappers. He is willing to break all the rules to get his daughter back. And becomes vindicated to both his daughter, his ex-wife and her husband as being someone of value.
I was surprised at the choice of Liam Neeson as the lead but he did an excellent job as the ex-spy father. One can imagine what it would be like to have a child kidnapped. What would you do, especially knowing the odds would be against survival. But to have the tools that Neeson does as an ex-spy, it becomes intriguing to watch him use those tools and the extent he will go and having the capability to go there.
I looked at some of the negative reviews to see if there is something I can convey that would help someone to avoid this type of movie. If you do not believe that there are in fact, people of extraordinary skills when it comes to killing, accepting pain and surviving then skip this movie. If because your child became spoiled, brattish or similar, that you would disown them, leave them to die or suffer then skip this movie. If you would not do anything to save your child regardless of what they have done to you, how badly they have treated you then skip this movie. If you are expecting an accurate documentary on any aspect of this movie or that it should be a treatise on certain subjects, then skip this movie.
Good entertainer December 5, 2009
Amit (New York)
Byron Mills is an ex soldier who moves to California to be closer to his daughter. Now he has a quiet existence and works moonlighting as a part time body guard for a pop stars. His daughter goes to Paris with a friend and within hours of arriving is kidnapped by Albanian pimps who sell young girls in to the skin trade, and Neeson has 96 hours to find his daughter before she completely disappears forever. This springs him in to action and where the action starts. Many action scenes and bodies later, you have a satisfying conclusion. This movie ended quite accidentally on my DVD queue because I generally steer away from movies about the skin trade and terrorism, two genres I feel have been killed mindlessly. I watched this movie and was pleasantly entertained. Okay, this is not the most fantastic storytelling but the 96 minute running time passed quickly for me. Liam Neeson finally delivers a audience friendly movie which is instantly derided by critics. They would rather have you make mindless drivel which is only understood by them than a movie that endears you to the masses. If your movie becomes a success, they will then start accusing you of selling out. I think this movie will be enjoyed by all; you will be taken not by the script but by the treatment. 3 1/2 stars 111909
Great Action Movie November 30, 2009
krazedant (New York)
My wife had wanted to watch this movie for a while, but I had my reservations about Liam Neeson as an action hero. Let me just say that I was extremely surprised by this movie (in a good way). Liam Neeson was an absolute bad@$$ and I loved every minute of it. He gives a great performance in this movie and it seems like this role was tailor made for him. His cool, calm demeanor really fit the character. If I was a bad guy and I heard the speech he gave to the kidnapper on the phone, I'd be crapping my pants LOL
This movie takes us back to old school action that isn't 90% CGI like it is nowadays. Once the action starts, it seems like it just doesn't stop until the very end. I don't want to ruin anything, so I'll just say anyone who hasn't seen this movie yet should at least give it a try. And for action movie junkies, this should be a must-watch. TAKEN is definitely one of my favorite movies in recent memory.
Showing reviews 46-50 of 379
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