Taken

Cast: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Leland Orser, Jon Gries and Katie Cassidy.

Director: Pierre Morel

Release Date: 2008

Running Time: 1hr 33 minutes

Genre: Action/Thriller

Rating: PG-13

Synopsis:

Retired CIA agent Bryan Mills travels across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his daughter Kim who has been kidnapped whilst on a trip to Paris.

Bryan Mills (Neeson) doesn't have the best relationship with his daughter Kim (Grace), he surprises her on her 17th birthday, where it becomes obvious that he is no longer welcome visiting her anymore either, when he's asked to leave her party. Kim desperatly wants to travel to Paris with her friend Amanda, they both have dreams of following U2 on their European tour when they are both suddenly kidnapped. The relationship between Kim and Bryan is very convincing, although they love one another there is some serious tension between them, being ex CIA Bryan is a lot more familiar with the world and how dangerous it can be, he really isn't too happy about her travelling around Europe. The reality of this film is quite scary. Maggie Grace's performance is extremely good, she's absolutely terrified and it's extremely convincing. The suspense that the acting provides in this film is absolutely fantastic. Liam Neeson is a little bit type cat, however he delivers like always a wonderful performance, you only have to listen to his character to know shit is gonna go down and trust me it really does!

The storyline is very good, it gets straight to the point very fast, all of the important characters are explained within the first couple of minutes to allow the audience to understand what is happening. The dialogue is very very good, the conversations between characters are believable, the dialogue also matches the personality of the characters particularly that of Bryan's. The pace of the film does move pretty fast, but not so much that you miss the important details, just enough to not allow the audience to get bored. The suspense in this film is absolutely brilliant. Taken is thrilling from beginning to end.

Visually it's a nice looking film, the lighting really adds to the tone of the film, it's dark and sinister and speaks volumes about the storyline. Although advertised as a thriller, this is very much an action film too, believe me there is plenty of it. There's nothing too spectacular about the cinematography, other then it looks very nice on screen, the actors are framed very well as are the settings. There isn't necessarily anything spectacular about production design other then it looks very realistic and the setting adds to the tone of the film brilliantly. Taken is like a puzzle, Bryan must work with every little bit of information that he was able to get out of Kim before she was kidnapped, with the help of a few people he slowly manages to track her down. The shots that the director has chosen work beautifully alongside this with the use of flash backs, close up shots of characters and the fantastic use of props, Kim was wearing a denim jacket, it appears in a scene half way through the film, but Kim is nowhere to be found, it's all a puzzle, the director leaves little hints through out the film to emphasize what is to come.

The Blu-Ray is pretty standard, the film itself looks very nice, the sound quality is absolutely brilliant. The movie itself is taken from the Taken trilogy Blu-Ray, so it also contains the other two films, which is brilliant when you want to know what happens in the next two films. There are however sadly no special features which is a little bit disappointing considering how fantastic the films are. I also don't think there is much of an excuse when you pack three films together and don't add any special features to go with them? Overall though this really is a very good film, it's full to the brim with action and is fantastically thrilling! Definitely worth a watch!

5/5 stars