Here’s the pitch: they’ve messed with the wrong family man. Except instead of Harrison Ford it’s a retired Jason Bourne.
Entertaining. Spoilers ahead. I didn’t give Taken a fair shot when I first saw the trailer. All I could think of is what kind of ridiculous ending it would have. My guess after seeing the trailer was that he set up the kidnapping because he was bored and he needed a reason to use his skills. But I realized pretty quickly into the movie that it wasn’t going in that direction. Then I thought his old buddies were involved, but again that wasn’t the case. There was plenty of opportunity and a bunch of characters for someone to come up with some lame surprise ending involving deeper motivation than simply kidnapping an American girl for a prostitution ring. The biggest twist is that there isn’t one, which was actually refreshing.
The movie does the most important things right: it makes you really like the good guy and really hate the bad guys. The action hardly stops, but it’d be a lot better if there was more of a sense that Liam was actually in danger. Even James Bond gets injured once in a while. Taken is 90 minutes long, which seems just right. Considering the short length and the lack of focus required to follow the story, it’s a great choice to toss on your Netflix queue and watch after work. Just be ready because it’s like punching an express ticket to One-Liner City.