Taken

Taken- PG-13

By Jonathan Goodsell
It's been a while since I've been so pumped after seeing a movie. I absolutely loved this film. Liam Neeson did an amazing job playing retired CIA agent Bryan Mills. Bryan Mills is an over protective and rather paranoid father. His daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), lives with his divorced wife. Kim, after a lot of pestering, gets Bryan to let her travel to France with some friends. Once in France, Kim and her friends get kidnapped and Bryan sets out to rescue his daughter before she gets sold off by the Albanian human traffickers that took her.
This movie was spectacular. Sure it was a classic guy flick with plenty of fighting and action, but it was so much more. The plot was simple yet deep and very well developed. Liam Neeson did a stunning job. The directing done by Pierre Morel was also noticeably good. The choreography needed to pull off all the fights and movement in this film was fantastically well done. You can tell a lot of detail and thought went into this whole film. The only real problem with this film was how short it was, barely breaking an hour and a half. They could have stretched it out and added more to it. The other problem I had was that there wasn't much of a conclusion, it built up to a climax clear till the last two minutes. But the rest of the movie easily made up for the rest of the film.
This movie was just amazing. I may just be a guy, but it was stunning. It kept my attention all throughout, and it was so intense I could have died right there and not even known it. After Kim gets kidnapped and Bryan gives his ultimatum to the kidnappers, you could feel the tension rise as the rest of the movie was about to unfold in a flash of awesomeness. The movie was slightly reminiscent of a Jason Bourne film, but it wasn't terrible.
Taken definitely earned it's rating. The whole film was almost back to back action and violence. Plenty of people were killed in gun fights or car crashes as Bryan went on his rampage through Paris. Though there was little to no blood despite all the action . The language was mild yet still present. The whole basis of the movie was the idea that Kim was going to be sold off to prostitution, hence why Bryan was racing to rescue her. Bryan busts into several prostitution hot spots in search of Kim,  nothing is seen, though plenty is strongly applied. Little kids would never know what was going on, but it's obvious to everyone else. This movie obviously isn't for everyone. It's extremely intense and violent throughout, almost a little to much; though luckily Morel had the good sense not to take it to far on the violence. But it would make a great choice for guys night out.
Like I've already said many times before, I loved this movie. It was Neeson at his best. The plot was quite enjoyable even if it could have been expanded a bit. I'm really looking forward to the sequel coming out this fall. So in my reviewer opinion, Taken gets a well earned a 8.5/10