'Taken' By Surprise

Need a palate cleanser?  This is it.

I think Alex Albrecht, of the Totally Rad Show, put it best when he compared seeing "Oscar films" to being a bit like eating vegetables.  It's good for you, it opens up you mind to new flavors, and it often introduces you to something quite delicious that you may have once thought unappetizing.  But like Mr. Albrecht then went on to say, sometimes you just want a slab of USDA, choice-cut beef, with some garlic butter and cheese drizzled over it.  Taken, not to be confused with the Spielberg produced SciFi miniseries (which is also good), is an uncomplicated action/suspenser equivalent of a thick, juicy, spice-rubbed ribeye.  It may not be the finest cut of cow, and it may even be getting a little too close to medium-well, but after a steady diet of vegetable films, boy does this hit the spot.

So first things first...or, I guess, second in the case...either way, Taken is at its center a vengeance movie, ala Man on Fire, where an retired tough guy, in this case flavored with a bit o' Guinness in the form of Irish acting legend Liam Neeson, enacts brutal retribution on a cadre of slimy personalities who have wronged someone close to him, in our case, by kidnapping Liam's now-living-with-mom-and-step-dad-because-you-can't-have-a-family-and-be-a-CIA-hitman daughter.  The film spends a Cardinals-esque valiant attempt at establishing the relationship between Liam and his daughter, but also like Cardinals, fumbles the ball in trying to portray Liam Neeson as regretful father who traded suburban bliss for torturing enemy combatants in middle eastern villages.  It's unfortunate that the meat of this movie had to be wrapped in such a stale beginning and even less appealing ending, but fortunately, someone in the editing room realized that where Neeson and his supporting cast struggled in relational zest, could be more than made up for in Neeson's ability to tenderize the faces of French-Albanian kidnappers.

Like I said, the meat of this movie is its glorious middle which involves essentially nonstop sequences of Neeson attempting to track down his daughter and quite literally driving over anyone who stands in his way.  There will be obvious comparisons to the Bourne series as Neeson's style of fisticuffs is a close quarters, rapid movement, shaky-cam form of fighting, choosing clever take downs over more traditional mixed martial arts.  However, in this reviewer's opinion, Liam Neeson's six foot frame provides a far more realistic shell for this style of fighting than the -- Matt. Damon. -- ever managed.  And for a 56 year old man, he can movie strikingly fast and fluid.  But where this movie real establishes itself as something unique is allowing Neeson's character to become remarkably unconcerned and dispassionate when it comes to removing any obstacle, innocent or not, in the way of getting to his daughter.  Neeson's character also shows no hint of mercy to any of victims, which while perhaps satisfying on some primordial level, leaves his exploits perhaps a little more comical than the film intended.  Though to the film's credit, it keeps the violence, if not the violent intent, to a PG-13 level, while still mangaging to serve up a satisfying platter of action.

Taken poses a problem that have often found with movies where one part of me seems determined to acknowledge a particular level of good or bad in the movie, while another is rather diametrically opposed.  For instance, when I screened last year's Oscar contender Atonement, I walked out of the theatre knowing it was a "good" movie, but realized that I didn't like it as much as it probably should be liked for its level of quality.  Taken is the complete opposite problem where I know the movie itself is not a "good" movie, and in many ways is probably a fairly poor movie, but I left the theatre absolutely thrilled about how much I had enjoyed it, only to have thrill slowly shift to guilty pleasure on the drive home.  But to paraphrase a favorite movie of mine, I know that this movie isn't a good movie.  I know that when I watch it the action-starved part of my brain is telling me that this movie fun and awesome.  After a dozen Oscar films, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss.