Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
Director
Pierre Morel
Cast
Liam Neeson,
Maggie Grace,
Leland Orser,
Famke Janssen,
Jon Gries,
David Warshofsky
Genre
Action,
Thriller
While vacationing with a friend in Paris, an American girl is kidnapped by a gang of human traffickers. Working against the clock, her ex-spy father must pull out all the stops to save her. But with his best years possibly behind him, the job may be more than he can handle.
A classic thriller that leaves you at the edge of your seat throughout the film. Liam Neeson's creates a character different from the spies and special agents we have seen before. His unique charm and cleverness carries the whole movie as you can't take your eyes off of him in action.
Premiere by Patrick Parker
The beginning is a little slow, but after Neeson starts his hunt and does his best wrath-of-God impression, it doesn’t skip a beat.
Austin Chronicle by Josh Rosenblatt
Taken moves so fast and with such single-minded, vindictive energy, there's no time for moral ambivalence.
Chicago Tribune
There is no mythology, no irony, no real soul--just a Charles Bronson simplicity about the whole affair.
Chicago Tribune by Christopher Borrelli
There is no mythology, no irony, no real soul--just a Charles Bronson simplicity about the whole affair.
Philadelphia Inquirer by Steven Rea
There's a xenophobic element to Taken's premise, to be sure - the idea that travel, even to Western Europe, isn't safe for Americans, and that foreigners (Albanians, Arabs) are by nature shifty and sinister.
Miami Herald by René Rodríguez
Taken is nonsense, but it's terrifically entertaining nonsense.
San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle
I won't tell you Taken is great, but it's great fun.
Washington Post by Dan Kois
A satisfying thriller as grimly professional as its efficient hero.
Salon by Stephanie Zacharek
The delirious and sometimes nasty little pleasures that Taken offers don't hinge as much on surprise as they do on the action (which is crisp and fast, with a minimum of computer enhancement) and on the story's unabashedly sentimental underpinnings.
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
Taken--in the hands of director Pierre Morel (District B13), with Neeson in nearly every shot--works like gangbusters. The Frenchies have made the filet mignon of meathead vigilante movies.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Travis Nichols
Accomplished if misguided thriller.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Taken shows Mills as a one-man rescue squad, a master of every skill, a laser-eyed, sharpshooting, pursuit-driving, pocket-picking, impersonating, knife-fighting, torturing, karate-fighting killing machine who can cleverly turn over a petrol tank with one pass in his car and strategically ignite it with another.
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
If there are any "24" fans who have wondered what the TV series might be like if Liam Neeson replaced Kiefer Sutherland, Taken provides an opportunity to have that question answered.
Variety by Derek Elley
Neeson growls his way through the functional dialogue as an unstoppable killing machine in impressive, cold-eyed style.
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
Propulsively outandish thriller.
The Hollywood Reporter
Might do good business at home and abroad among audiences unconcerned with the finer points of characterization or psychological insight.
L.A. Weekly
Neeson's tormented weariness lends an air of dignity to the film's pulpy, grubby nastiness, but as striking as he is in action-hero mode, the truth is that Taken doesn't need dignity.
The A.V. Club by Scott Tobias
Taken's subject matter is too serious for an escapist chop-socky movie, and the sleazy, exploitative tone undercuts the thrills.
The New Yorker by Anthony Lane
You do wonder how this commanding actor (Neeson)--who carries so much more conviction than the plot--felt about delivering the line "I'll tear down the Eiffel Tower if I have to."
Boston Globe by Wesley Morris
Taken? You bet.
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