11:03am Friday 26th September 2008
By Damon Smith
If Jason Statham wasn't otherwise disposed, racking up points on his licence for speeding and dangerous driving in Death Race, he'd almost certainly be headlining Pierre Morel's brutal, adrenaline-pumping action thriller.
Instead, statuesque Irish actor Liam Neeson is the unlikely choice for leading man in this fast-paced jaunt through the French capital, based on a script by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, who previously collaborated on Statham's The Transporter and its sequel.
Government operative Bryan Mills (Neeson) retires from his perilous, covert life of prevention' to rebuild bridges with his spoilt 17-year-old daughter Kim (Maggie Grace).
He earns occasional money on bodyguard detail for celebrities including pop diva Sheerah (Holly Valance), who is a prime target for knife-wielding fans, but family must come first.
Mills eventually bows to pressure from ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and grants his daughter permission to visit Paris with best friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy).
"You don't have to worry," smiles Kim sweetly.
"That's like telling water not to be wet, honey," replies her old man.
Midway through a telephone call to Kim, to check the girls have arrived safely, all of his worst fears are confirmed.
Albanian thugs break into the girls' city-centre apartment and drag away Amanda, then hunt down Kim while her father listens calmly across the Atlantic.
"If you let my daughter go now, that will be the end of it," he promises one of the abductors, who picks up Kim's phone. "If you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."
"Good luck," replies the man menacingly.
Boarding the next available flight, Mills seeks out old contact Jean Claude (Olivier Rabourdin) who sets out the mission: "You have a 96-hour window from when she was grabbed... to never finding her."
Taken puts the pedal to the metal from the moment the girls are snatched, barely pausing for breath as Mills wreaks havoc in the French capital.
The hero follows the evidentiary trail of breadcrumbs - leaping through the gaping plot holes - against a backdrop of the Champs-Elysees and the River Seine, where a climactic night-time boat trip goes overboard on wanton bloodshed.
Action set-pieces are well choreographed, including a breakneck car chase and some bone-crunching fist fights that recall Matt Damon's recent Jason Bourne forays for ferocity and slick editing.
Neeson is imposing in the thuggish and somewhat two-dimensional lead role, bludgeoning anyone or anything that dares to get in his way, including common sense.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk