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Movie Review - Taken
- By Kevin Hendricks
- Published 03/2/2009
- Movie Reviews
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Rating:
Kevin Hendricks
Kevin D. Hendricks has covered writing, pop culture, technology, spirituality and navel-gazing since 1998. Kevin does writing and editing with his company, Monkey Outta Nowhere. He is happily married with one and a half (in the midst of adopting) children and live in St. Paul, MN. You can read his daily blog at http://www.kevinhendricks.com
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Movie review - Taken
Taken
Rated PG-13
by Kevin Hendricks
Liam Neeson stars as a one-man vigilante machine: "If you don't let my daughter go, I will find you and I will kill you." Thus begins a trail of carnage and death across Paris as a father tries to rescue his daughter.
The Story
Bryan Mills (Neeson) served his country well as a CIA operative, but in the process failed as a father. Now divorced, Mills retires and tries to rekindle his relationship with his teenage daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). Even after she lies to him, he reluctantly grants her permission to spend the summer in Paris with a friend.
Once in Paris, the first person Kim and her friend Amanda meet is a not-so-innocent boy named Peter that Amanda decides she's going to sleep with. But she never gets the chance. Albanian kidnappers break in while Kim is conveniently on the phone with her ex-CIA father.
Panic sets in as Kim watches through a window while her friend is abducted. Mills calmly instructs his daughter to crawl under a bed as he prepares her for what's about to happen: "Now the next part is very important: They're going to take you."
His deliberate instructions result in a string of clues overheard on the transatlantic cell phone call, and Mills springs into action. His CIA buddies warn him about the human trafficking rap sheet of these Albanian captors and tell him he has 96 hours before Kim disappears for good.
After touching down in Paris, Mills begins piecing the clues together CSI-style and taking down the bad guys with the efficiency of Jason Bourne. There are white-knuckle chase scenes, tense stand-offs in the lion's den, heart-breaking glimpses at the world of human trafficking, and plenty of fisticuffs to go around.
The Verdict
What Works: The heart-pounding action doesn't let up. Once Mills starts racking up the kills, the film barely slows down. The pace is relentless; the editing is quick and jarring; the fighting is painful.
It helps that righteous anger rallies the audience to Mills' side. Like Charles Bronson of old, Liam Neeson is serving up justice. How can you root against that?
Neeson offers a strong performance as the calm, deadly CIA operative (except for that Irish accent) on his most important mission ever. The movie packs a powerful popcorn action punch.
What Doesn't Work: What's more predictable than a father-rescues-daughter-from-kidnappers flick? Maybe the stale stereotypes of the vaguely Middle-Eastern captors or the emotionally detached European intelligence agent? The American vigilante abroad is as cliche' as it gets.
It's also too easy. Mills rarely takes a wrong turn or follows a false lead. Every clue falls into place and moves him closer to his goal. Even when he does screw up, it's easily rectified with a little violence. Real life isn't so convenient.
Content: Once this movie gets going it's a non-stop violence-fest, full of shooting, stabbing, beating, and torturing. It's not especially gory, but only because the action doesn't slow long enough to watch a body fall. Forced prostitution is portrayed without nudity or being too explicit, but the implications are plenty disturbing. And you can't kill baddies without cussing. There's plenty of PG-13 level profanity and half a dozen instances of God's name used as swearing.
Worldview
How the film's perspective compares to a biblical take on life
A father will do anything to rescue his daughter. That's the basic, unquestioned premise of "Taken", and it remains true no matter how many laws Mills has to break or people he has to kill. Morality takes a backseat to protecting your family.
Few will argue with that idea, except maybe for Jesus. He tells us to love our enemies. (Luke 6:27) Those words are especially hard to swallow in a situation like the one Mills and his family faces. Our instinct is to respond in righteous anger, to protect ourselves and our loved ones, to take justice into our own hands.
To be clear, God is unambiguous when it comes to justice. Justice will roll down, and evildoers will get their comeuppance. (See Psalm 103:6 and Isaiah 35:4.) But God says vengeance is His, not ours (Romans 12:19). Instead of a killing spree, Jesus urges us to turn the other cheek. (Luke 6:29)
That might not make for a compelling action movie, but it doesn't mean we're powerless in the face of injustice. Love is a powerful weapon that can shatter the darkest hearts. Prayer can mean the difference between hope and despair. And we can still take action comforting victims, bringing awareness to the issue, and supporting legal efforts to bring human traffickers to justice.
The film portrays the brutal reality of human trafficking, an illegal industry where people are bought and sold for slave labor or sexual exploitation. But the reality the film doesn't show is that most victims of human trafficking don't have Liam Neeson to go all CIA operative on their captors.
The Bible calls us to stand up for the poor and the oppressed (Psalm 82:3-4; Isaiah 1:17) -- not with secret agent action moves, but with love, justice and mercy. You can learn more about fighting human trafficking from organizations like the International Justice Mission and One Voice to End Slavery. We can't all be ruthlessly precise vigilantes, but we can still help set captives free.
Rated PG-13
by Kevin Hendricks
Liam Neeson stars as a one-man vigilante machine: "If you don't let my daughter go, I will find you and I will kill you." Thus begins a trail of carnage and death across Paris as a father tries to rescue his daughter.
The Story
Bryan Mills (Neeson) served his country well as a CIA operative, but in the process failed as a father. Now divorced, Mills retires and tries to rekindle his relationship with his teenage daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). Even after she lies to him, he reluctantly grants her permission to spend the summer in Paris with a friend.
Once in Paris, the first person Kim and her friend Amanda meet is a not-so-innocent boy named Peter that Amanda decides she's going to sleep with. But she never gets the chance. Albanian kidnappers break in while Kim is conveniently on the phone with her ex-CIA father.
Panic sets in as Kim watches through a window while her friend is abducted. Mills calmly instructs his daughter to crawl under a bed as he prepares her for what's about to happen: "Now the next part is very important: They're going to take you."
His deliberate instructions result in a string of clues overheard on the transatlantic cell phone call, and Mills springs into action. His CIA buddies warn him about the human trafficking rap sheet of these Albanian captors and tell him he has 96 hours before Kim disappears for good.
After touching down in Paris, Mills begins piecing the clues together CSI-style and taking down the bad guys with the efficiency of Jason Bourne. There are white-knuckle chase scenes, tense stand-offs in the lion's den, heart-breaking glimpses at the world of human trafficking, and plenty of fisticuffs to go around.
The Verdict
What Works: The heart-pounding action doesn't let up. Once Mills starts racking up the kills, the film barely slows down. The pace is relentless; the editing is quick and jarring; the fighting is painful.
It helps that righteous anger rallies the audience to Mills' side. Like Charles Bronson of old, Liam Neeson is serving up justice. How can you root against that?
Neeson offers a strong performance as the calm, deadly CIA operative (except for that Irish accent) on his most important mission ever. The movie packs a powerful popcorn action punch.
What Doesn't Work: What's more predictable than a father-rescues-daughter-from-kidnappers flick? Maybe the stale stereotypes of the vaguely Middle-Eastern captors or the emotionally detached European intelligence agent? The American vigilante abroad is as cliche' as it gets.
It's also too easy. Mills rarely takes a wrong turn or follows a false lead. Every clue falls into place and moves him closer to his goal. Even when he does screw up, it's easily rectified with a little violence. Real life isn't so convenient.
Content: Once this movie gets going it's a non-stop violence-fest, full of shooting, stabbing, beating, and torturing. It's not especially gory, but only because the action doesn't slow long enough to watch a body fall. Forced prostitution is portrayed without nudity or being too explicit, but the implications are plenty disturbing. And you can't kill baddies without cussing. There's plenty of PG-13 level profanity and half a dozen instances of God's name used as swearing.
Worldview
How the film's perspective compares to a biblical take on life
A father will do anything to rescue his daughter. That's the basic, unquestioned premise of "Taken", and it remains true no matter how many laws Mills has to break or people he has to kill. Morality takes a backseat to protecting your family.
Few will argue with that idea, except maybe for Jesus. He tells us to love our enemies. (Luke 6:27) Those words are especially hard to swallow in a situation like the one Mills and his family faces. Our instinct is to respond in righteous anger, to protect ourselves and our loved ones, to take justice into our own hands.
To be clear, God is unambiguous when it comes to justice. Justice will roll down, and evildoers will get their comeuppance. (See Psalm 103:6 and Isaiah 35:4.) But God says vengeance is His, not ours (Romans 12:19). Instead of a killing spree, Jesus urges us to turn the other cheek. (Luke 6:29)
That might not make for a compelling action movie, but it doesn't mean we're powerless in the face of injustice. Love is a powerful weapon that can shatter the darkest hearts. Prayer can mean the difference between hope and despair. And we can still take action comforting victims, bringing awareness to the issue, and supporting legal efforts to bring human traffickers to justice.
The film portrays the brutal reality of human trafficking, an illegal industry where people are bought and sold for slave labor or sexual exploitation. But the reality the film doesn't show is that most victims of human trafficking don't have Liam Neeson to go all CIA operative on their captors.
The Bible calls us to stand up for the poor and the oppressed (Psalm 82:3-4; Isaiah 1:17) -- not with secret agent action moves, but with love, justice and mercy. You can learn more about fighting human trafficking from organizations like the International Justice Mission and One Voice to End Slavery. We can't all be ruthlessly precise vigilantes, but we can still help set captives free.
Spread The Word
Comments
Comment #1 (Posted by GLJ)
Rating:
Good review but I think I liked it more than you did. Not something I'd take my youth to but I know many of the guys already saw it. Good take-aways.
