|  | Actors: Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
List Price: $29.98
Buy Used: $3.40
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Rating:  304 reviews
Sales Rank: 378
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): 5
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 2255352
UPC: 024543553526
EAN: 0024543553526
ASIN: B001TODCII
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: May 12, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Previously Viewed rental product. 100% GUARANTEED! May have stickers on case or disc. Fast shipping! Book, Video, Video Game & Music titles!
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 304
 shallow, boring, stupid October 30, 2009
Jesse F. Paxton (Norwalk, California USA)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Sorry -- Bought this on the recommendation of Liam Neeson's acting and shots of Paris. Well, there are only a couple of shots of Paris, and none worth a second glance -- that's all you get is a glance at anything, as the movie never stops rushing from one place to antoher, pausing only long enough for Neeson to dispose of an enemy in a few quick cuts. There's no dialog worth mentioning in the entire movie, and the only subplot (with his French friend as part of the crime ring) so overused in detective/action movies it's blase now. Liam Neeson's acting cannot overcome poor plot, poor dialog, poor filming, poor costuming, poor editing, and poor acting on every one else's part (his 17 year old daughter acts like she's six years old, even Famke Janssen is flat as his ex-wife). The reason this is only an hour and a half is because of the total lack of content. Pierre Morel (director)and Luc Besson (writer) clearly demonstrate why Hollywood, as lame and unoriginal as it is, continues to reign over the movie world -- because these people are more lame and unoriginal.
Simple, brutal thriller October 29, 2009
One-Line Film Reviews (Easton, MD)
The Bottom Line:
No one is going to accuse Taken of being an intelligent film, but if you're in the mood for a slick action movie that moves relentlessly from one scene to the next, doesn't use CGI, and never requires brain usage, than Taken is the film for you.
3/4
 Greating acting makes a great popcorn thriller October 27, 2009
the fine reverend besotted
If you come to this movie looking for "reality" you will not be happy. However, if you understand that a thriller is all about the action and the intensity of emotion, this movie is a nice little gem of an action picture.
Liam Neeson is a respected "serious" actor and his ability is well used to take a cardboard character, as written on the page, and making him into an angst-ridden, existential killing machine. In the beginning of the movie, Neeson's character, "Bryan Mills", is a big puppy dog of a man. Gone too long from his daughter's life, he is overly eager to please her. A difficult task given that his ex-wife has married a multi-millionaire who gives his daughter, "Kim", everything which Bryan cannot.
Kim, played very well by Maggie Grace, is one of those seventeen year old girls you occasionally come across who has a woman's body but still is basically a kid, too trusting and too sweet by half. While she does not understand her father, she clearly has great affection for him and, though they have spent little time together due to his job, he seems to understand her better than does her mother.
To cut to the chase, Kim goes to Paris with her nineteen year old friend, "Amanda". Unlike Kim, Amanda is nineteen going on twenty-nine, overly confident and more interested in having sex with cute boys than exploring Paris. Directly because of this lack of impulse control, Amanda allows a young man to know where she and Kim are staying and that, despite telling Kim otherwise, there will be no adult chaperones.
Bad mistake. Soon, a gang of immigrant Albanian thugs break into the apartment to kidnap the girls, more warm bodies for their white slave trade. This is where Maggie Grace shines. Her expression as she realizes what is going on is very moving and makes the viewer desire rescue and revenge on Kim's behalf.
And revenge is on the way. Kim's father was gone from her life so often because he was a "preventer" for the CIA. A man of gentle warmth around his daughter, he is trained to be efficiently brutal and to kill when needed. And kill he does. Once in Paris, Bryan is a force of nature. Like a hurricane, the few fools who get in his way are soon blown to the winds - which is a polite way of saying, dead.
Here is where Neeson's acting ability is most appreciated. I have seen him play a warm, loving man before (see "Love Actually") and a warrior (see "Rob Roy"); however, here he is something more. Once Kim is taken, his face is hard as granite, his manner is a polite front hiding an eagerness to brutalize, and he moves with an athletic efficiency as he dispatches bad guy after bad guy. He literally does become a force of nature, the proverbial father whose love for his daughter has made him transcended basic humanity. He will get her back or die in the effort. While "Taken" describes the plot of this movie, "Driven" defines its heart. Nothing and nobody will prevent Bryan from getting back his daughter. Very intense.
On the minus side, the movie is by a French director which means he tends to ignore the likely consequences for Bryan. I have notice this before. American directors always present the logic of action by throwing in short scenes to "justify" what the character does next whereas French directors are more concerned with sustaining the emotional intensity and, therefore, ignore such scenes since they break the flow of action.
In example, Bryan is chasing a bad guy at the airport and simultaneously is being chased by police officers. When the bad guy dies, suddenly we are in the next scene. Somehow, Bryan has evaded those police officers. How? We never know. Similarly, Bryan hears a bad guy talk about trouble at the worksite. Next thing you know, Bryan is at the worksite. How he found it is never shown. This is particularly perplexing since Bryan is new to Paris and this is the first time he has seen the bad buy in question.
Another minus is the simplistic character dynamics. While highly skillful as a spy, Bryan is a failure in everyday life. As is too common in such movies, his ex-wife's new husband is not only more successful, but a paragon of success with a big mansion and many cars. As for the wife, though she has full custody of their daughter and has re-married "up", she is continually belittling and shrewish toward Bryan - who she divorced mostly because his job kept him away too long and not because she and him differed. Why is she shrewish? No apparent reason other than it serves the director's desire to create as much conflict as possible. Basically, the ex-wife and her new husband are written to pile doo-doo on the Bryan character, make him more of a loser so he can rise like a phoenix once his daughter is kidnapped. Effective - but obvious.
The contrast between Kim and Amanda is also too obvious. "Good daughter" versus "slut". This latter contrast is compounded by the indifference shown toward Amanda's death. "Good daughters" deserve rescue: "sluts" are like furniture, you throw'em away after use.
Despite these minuses, the movie works because Maggie Grace's performance (though sometimes mannered) makes you care deeply for Kim and because Liam Neeson brings a rich complexity to Bryan, making him intelligent, dignified and vulnerable, even when the occasion requires him to be closed off from his humanity. These two actors have great chemistry and I hope they work with each other in the future.
Taken October 27, 2009
Jacqueline M. Pierce (Martin, TN)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
All young adults need to see this. This happens in america as well as overseas.
Taken October 27, 2009
Lizzard (PA)
This movie was fantastic!!! Liam Neeson is an x-agent for the government who worked as a "Preventer". His daughter is abducted while on a trip abroad and that's when this movie really takes off! Fast paced action, many bad guys cease to exist & the ending you'll need to watch (I don't want to give it away). But Liam Neeson kicks some serious butt without worrying about the consequences!
Showing reviews 6-10 of 304
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