Review #583: 'Taken' (2008)

In an age where mainstream action heroes could do with a little one-on-one time with a psychiatrist, this hugely successful French-American crossover brings back the ethics of a Seagal or Stallone - break an arm in three places first, ask questions later. Whereas now I can look back at the 1980's action genre with a semi guilt-ridden smirk and amuse myself at the questionable politics, Taken takes itself very seriously, trying to disguise it's straight-to-DVD credentials as something cleaner, more 'topical'. The topic is people trafficking, but there are too many stubbly, tattooed foreign bad guys to torture and kill for it to become anything profound. He just wants his daughter back.

Forced into retirement from the CIA to be closer to his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace), Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) earns his money from security jobs with his fellow retirees. His ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) is now shacked up with her millionaire husband, and announces that Kim wants to travel to Paris with her fellow 17 year old friend. Mills, having seen the evil in the world due to his job, opposes the trip, but eventually agrees under some strict guidelines. Naturally, upon arrival, Kim and her friend are kidnapped while Kim is on the phone to her father, who takes various clues from the phone call to aid him on his quest to get her back.

This was my second viewing of Taken, as I felt like I needed to watch it again after being perplexed by the almost universal praise this received from audiences. I was amazed the first time around at the sheer audacity of the film's racial stereotypes, and the shake-the-camera-a-lot approach to the action scenes. The second time, I enjoyed it a lot more - but as a comedy. There is simply too many plot-holes and general laziness for it to be taken remotely seriously, and the now infamous phone call scene spouting some classic lines. When talking to the kidnapper - "if you're looking for a ransom, I can tell you I don't have any money. But what I do have are a particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career." It's almost too bad to comprehend.

What confused me most is the message behind this movie, as it seems that Mills' overprotective, almost racist (in context of his views of any countries outside of America) father is proven to be correct when Kim gets kidnapped by some sleazy French people. Yes, yes I know this was made by French people, but even they are portrayed in a stereotypical manner, with Mills' police contact, um, Jean-Claude (Olivier Rabourdin), looking like he's stepped straight out of a Jean-Luc Godard movie and is looking for his baguette, beret and necklace of onions. Then there's the sleazy Albanians, smoking cigarettes in string vests, and the sleazy Middle-Easterners, including a grossly fat sheikh who looks like he's wandered off the set of The Thief of Bagdad. Of course the Americans aren't sleazy, just spoilt and bullying.

How this is so highly-praised is beyond me, as every aspect of the film is awful. I could understand people warming to it's cheddar-caked charm and quotable script ("this is not the time for dick-measuring!"), but other reviews I've read on IMDb take this film seriously, as if it was some kind of stepping-stone in action cinema. Well it's not, it's a steaming pile of unoriginal turd, returning to an oh-so-simple tale of revenge set in the modern-world of continental tension and American interference. A minor plus-point is Neeson, who gets through this surprisingly unscathed, given the bilge he has to work with, and manages to re-invent himself as an action star (he went on to star in The Grey and Taken 2 - both 2012). But I think I've finally understood the moral of this story, and it's one I can agree with - don't go to France.


Directed by: Pierre Morel
Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen
Country: France/USA/UK

Rating: *

Tom Gillespie