"Taken" and Top 5 Liam Neeson

Liam Neeson plays an ex spy who has given up his old life to reconnect with his 17-year old daughter. He reluctantly agrees to let her travel to Europe with her friend alone only to then discover that she and her friend have been taken and he doesn't have long to find her before she falls off the radar completely.

Firstly Liam Neeson is AMAZING! I was so impressed with his bad-boy John McLane/Jason Bourne/James Bond attempt - it really works for him! The fight scenes are very impressive (if a little one-sided! - John McLane always won but he got beaten to a pulp in the process). Also, the scene where the girls are taken still gives me chills. It's a terrifying sight to see and on his hunt to find his daughter, Liam encounters all sorts of sordid characters and the many females along the way that have been duped and dragged along against their will, drugged and sold to the highest bidder. It's nasty stuff.

The phrase "good luck" will also never be the same to me again. *shudder*

Now here's the downsides... the premise would have been far more believable had the two girls not been such complete ****s at the start. I am by no stretch of the imagination saying they deserved it but it infuriated me when they met a guy at the airport, shared a cab and showed him where the flat they're staying in was - oh and then the friend says "Our cousins are away in Madrid, yeah come over later". The sex traffic industry is not something to be laughed at but have some common sense ladies! The ending is also a bit of an anti-climax but doesn't ruin the rest of the film at least.

Other than that though, its definitely watcheable and quite amusing to see a cameo from Holly Valance. If you wait for TV it wouldn't be the end of the world. Just watch it at some point - no rush! :)

Top 5 Liam Neeson (in no particular order!):

1. Nell (beautiful and bizarre film about a woman, played by Jodie Foster, who has grown up without human interaction)
2. A-Team (silly, funny, action-packed, brill - I love it when a plan comes together)
3. Schindler's List (Phenomenal cast act out the life of Oscar Schindler who saved many Jews in the Holocaust by paying to have them work for him)
4. Love Actually (Richard Curtis film about the lives and loves of a large group of people with Bill Nighy, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant - among others!)
5. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (voice only I know but Aslan is brill and the first film is hands down the best of the bunch - magical, will take you back to your youth)

Enjoy

3/5

LE xx