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RATING:   
Divorce Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson, picture) reluctantly agrees to let his teenage daughter (Maggie Grace) take a European summer holiday in a bid to hopefully repair their strained relationship.
However, soon after her arrival, she is kidnapped by Euro trash. It is pretty bad news for the scumbags, seeing as Bryan — thanks to his previous government job — is spectacularly equipped to hunt them down and kill them.
Produced by Luc Besson (Leon, Nikita) and crisply directed by former cinematographer Pierre Morel, Taken stokes the audience’s rage with its premise of a helpless femalesold to sexual slavery, then satisfies the thirst for revenge and appetite for thrills and spills with sleek car chases and violent scenes where the bad guys get their comeuppance.
The compelling and utterly believable Neeson is the reason why a movie with such sporadic implausibility as this works, as the actor delivers just the right balance of hidden pain, moral ambiguity and a father’s blind love and determination.
- TODAY/yb
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