Reviews

Review: Taken

The stink of producer/co-screenwriter Luc Besson permeates like Roquefort

By BRETT MICHEL | January 27, 2009

1.5 Stars

VIDEO: The trailer for Taken

Pierre Morel's talents as an action cinematographer served him well when he directed District B13 (2004). But here the stink of producer/co-screenwriter Luc Besson permeates his film like Roquefort.

Like the cheese, Morel's latest will have its admirers (those with a nose for fast-paced action), but it's another pungent release from Besson's EuropaCorp (responsible for the Transporter series) that biliously plays into America's perceived prejudice toward all things French, Arab, and . . . Albanian?

Liam Neeson (whose gravitas exists in a different orbit from the weightless script) is Bourne again as Bryan Mills, a retired (and oddly Irish-accented) American spook with no qualms about killing anyone who gets in the way of his finding his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), who's been kidnapped within minutes of setting foot in Paris. Goodbye City of Love; hello to, in Besson's purview, Sex-Trafficking Central.

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Topics: Reviews , Liam Neeson, Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, More

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