Family plot

Liam Neeson must rescue his kidnapped
daughter in the dumb, occasionally fun Taken

DEADLY DADDY: Neeson

by MATTHEW HAYS

It was American film critic Richard Schickel who once coined the phrase “the good dumb movie.” He was referring to studio films that competently delivered something entertaining, but didn’t break any new boundaries nor challenge the mind.

Taken aspires to be a good dumb movie, but only makes it half way. It’s only occasionally good, but in the dumb department—wow!—does it deliver. Liam Neeson plays a former government operative who knows how to protect people in high places, and about the machinations of the underground crime world. Suddenly, his teenage daughter (who he’s never been close enough to) is kidnapped after arriving in Paris.

Neeson is soon on a flight to the city to track down whoever’s responsible and keel them. The creatively titled Taken could just as easily have been dubbed Not Without My Daughter 2: European Vacation. Neeson’s so clearly above this, it’s ludicrous—and one could take momentary solace in the fact that he was obviously paid something to take the role. But then sadness sets in again: could this be the tipping point that pushes his career into a Robert DeNiro-esque trajectory?

Neeson spouts all sorts of bravura dialogue about how committed he is to rescuing his daughter (“I would tear down the Eiffel Tower if I have to!”) while kicking the asses of some immigrant kidnappers (yes, he takes on shades of Dirty Harry-style fascism). We’re clearly supposed to get some kind of vicarious thrill as Neeson kicks, shoots and tortures various people whose skin is a shade or two darker than his.

The thugs are so evil that when he begins getting to the bottom of the underground prostitution black market, capitalism is seen as the culprit: “This is a business,” one crook surmises, shortly before Neeson blows him to kingdom come. Strangely hypocritical, in the middle of a film that was clearly made with nothing more than profit in mind. There’s even an apparent ode to Gitmo: one creep is killed but two syllables into uttering the word “negotiate.”

There are a few fun chase scenes in Taken, though director Pierre Morel appears to have attended the Jerry Bruckheimer School of Shooting Action Sequences, which is not a good thing. This is a dumb film that longs to be good, but captures the quality only fleetingly.

TAKEN OPENS THIS FRIDAY, JAN. 30