Taken

UK Release: 26th September 2008

Watched on TV: Monday 26th September 2011

Rating: 15

Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller

Runtime: 1hr 33mins

Tagline: His daughter was taken. He has 96 hours to get her back.

IMDb Plot Summary: A former spy relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been forced into the slave trade.

(Warning this review contains SPOILERS!)

My Review: Taken, is an edge of your seat thrill ride - no cliche, just how I really feel. This is how a thriller is supposed to be: it should get the blood rushing, grip you right until the very end. 

However, I was disappointed by the ending - it was so unrealistic, that it was ridiculous. After all he’d done, killed all those people, surely someone, somewhere would care and would go after him. He couldn’t possibly just go back to his life as it was, living out in the open. I fully expected that as he put his daughter in a cab at the airport, one of them would get killed. But no. He takes her to see the famous singer and everything is rosy. His 17 year old, daughter gets over being kidnapped, almost sold into prostitution and seeing her Dad shoot someone in the head in front of her, in a blink of an eye. That’s what ruined it for me, the rest of the film was perfectly paced and full of emotion. I believed that Liam Neeson would do anything for his daughter. It felt real, which is why it worked so well. Yet, the ending was far from reality and therefore put a downer on the film as a whole. For once, I didn’t want a Hollywood happy ever after. But don’t get me wrong it was still an excellent film and I’d definitely recommend it.

Score: 8/10