Taken: Critic Reviews

In a lesser actor's hands, the powerful impact of the subject matter would not have been so ably delivered.

It's like Paul Schrader's 1979 Hardcore with no brain and more muscle.

Taken starts in low gear and almost immediately stalls out.

What a slick, dubious, morally bankrupt movie this is.

With some suspension of disbelief and a strong stomach, it's possible to get taken in, or at least absorbed, by this adrenaline-pumping action thriller.

A satisfying thriller as grimly professional as its efficient hero.

This is another unsavory mix of sentimentality and high-octane seediness from the Luc Besson factory.

Neeson's better than this.

If it's unrepentant violence you're after, you're better off renting [director] Morel's 2004 collaboration syndicate with Besson, District B13.

Taken is an exploitation thriller, the sort of studio pic that seizes the worst the world has to offer (the sex-slave outrages that The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof exposed so brilliantly) to bolster its rote rhythms.

It's the big, dolorous Neeson who makes the movie a keeper.

[Neeson's] performance is the most perturbing thing in the film, even more so than its electrical-torture sequence or its revelations about sex-trafficking.

The movie proves two things. (1) Liam Neeson can bring undeserved credibility to most roles just by playing them, and (2) Luc Besson, the co-writer, whose actioner-assembly line produced this film, turns out high-quality trash, and sometimes much better.

Taken, which tells the story of how Liam Neeson blows a gasket and flies off to France and kills 75 Albanians in 90 minutes, is crisp, efficient and deeply insane.

Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen saddle Neeson with indigestible dialogue and preposterous situations.

A fleet, no-nonsense rescue thriller from the crackerjack French director Pierre Morel, Taken is satisfying (1) for the Gaelic gravitas of its star, (2) its slam-bang chase scenes and bone-snapping martial arts, and (3) the scenic backdrops of Paris.

The film flirts with saying something dark and serious about pursuing justice through unjust means, then quickly chickens out.

Bottom line? Action junkies sign up, school marms stay home.

Taken is movie junk food -- fun while it lasts, but not much more. Nothing wrong with that kind of snack every now and then. You just won't want a steady diet of it.

Taken is the kind of exploitative junk everyone expects from no-talent French hack Luc Besson.

Widescreen package is technically slick at all levels, and ditto the action choreography, in a cartoonish way.

Next out of the January dreg-u-lator: A Liam Neeson thriller so lacking in ambition they should have called it Paycheck.

Besson's espresso-jag thrillers are all the caffeine an action fan needs until the summer thrill rides arrive.

You'll miss out on a good movie if you consider Taken just another January dumping.

The last third of the film is a 50-year-old's little-boy temper tantrum.