Bryan Mills, (Liam Neeson) a retired CIA agent with an estranged wife and daughter. (Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace, respectively) Working at the CIA has turned him into a strong and fast-paced killing machine. He's like Rambo, but without the biceps. In fact, "machine" is a better word to describe him. When he fights the baddies, he almost never gets hurt, and walks away as if a fight, or a car chase, never even happened. Did the CIA build him from scratch, or can people like him really do all those things?

The baddies, in question, are sex trafficking thugs in Paris, who kidnap Bryan's wealthy daughter. The story begins with his daughter wanting to travel there. She just turned 17, but she's not quite old enough to go by herself, or with a friend who *is* old enough. Seems strange, to me. Anyway, her dad has to sign some kind of form. Bryan's hesitant, at first, but eventually gives in, under certain guidelines of his. He obviously cares about her, because he wouldn't go around Paris as a one (super)man army to find her, now would he?

Yes, he does, in his own one-dimensional way. Although his character doesn't make the film unique, his fighting does. In one scene, he punches a window without getting any blood on his hand. Watching him take on bad guy after bad guy becomes kind of amusing, after a while.

The film doesn't take the action genre to any new levels, like The Dark Knight did, not even a year ago, for the superhero genre. (Maybe Taken would've been better if Bryan wore a costume.) It's straightforward, but it's fun. The fights 'n chases are choreographed with care. The acting is what you'd expect: a bit stilted, but believable. Bryan may be 1D, but Liam Neeson's performance is 3D, if that makes sense.

Yessiree, Taken has got the brawn, all right, but it's short on brains. If that bothers you, then this is not your film. For me, it was a good time waster.

7/10

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