Taken (2008)

It’s been a good few years since I saw the first Taken movie, and I sat down this week in the mood for ninety minutes of brainless violence. What I did not expect, when I paused to visit the toilet about an hour in, was to be completely gripped by what was going on on the screen. Taken found itself a cult following after its release, seemingly by thousands of people who seemed unaware of the existence of previous B-movies in general. But there’s no denying Taken’s cultural and cinematic legacy fifteen years on. As well as being an expertly put together exploitation movie, casting Liam Neeson was a masterstroke, one that has essentially launched an entire sub-genre of its own. Neeson has arguably played the same character in films like Unknown (2011), The Grey (2011) and Non-Stop (2014) to name but a few, as well as actually revisiting the character of Brian Mills in Taken 2 (2012) and Tak3n (2014). And the crux of the issue with regards to Taken, is that, well, it’s a pretty good thriller on its own. It’s not groundbreaking, but it’s exciting, thrilling, funny, and more important than it had any right to be. The question is if Taken hadn’t performed financially as well as it did, would we still be talking about Liam Neeson portraying the same tired, ex-insert agency as applicable character in various films? Perhaps not, and there is a dispute that Neeson’s acting chops would have been better tested in different roles across the filmic spectrum if Taken hadn’t kicked off the Neeson B-movement if you will. But there’s no point in harbouring resentment at this; if you want to see Neeson at his absolute finest, go and re-watch Schindler’s List (1993). If you’re in the mood for a solid thriller, or better still, a top of the range violent exploitation movie, you could do a hell of a lot worse than Taken. Hell, you couldn’t do much better in my opinion. 7.8/10