TAKEN

Starring Liam Neeson and 95 unlucky stuntmen.

Before seeing this one, I had heard some so so reviews and the one major complaint critics had was that it was basically Liam Neeson against everyone in the world and there were simply too many bad guys to keep track of.
Who cares?This movie was top notch action of the hand to hand and car chase variety.It was so good in fact that I would rank the action sequences above and beyond the Bourne movies.You could actually see the hand to hand scenes without it being shot frantically or heavily edited.You believe the scenes as well because Neeson's character doesnt use more than a handful of the same moves against his foes but they are so devastating and effective that you cringe every time.
His drive is believable as well.His daughter in the movie is kidnapped and sold into the sadly all to real world of sex trafficking and has a mere 96 hours (statistically) to be found before being lost forever.The good news for us the fans is that our hero is a former government operative with as he puts it "a particular set of skills"that allows him to one by one work his way up from the low man on the scumbag totem poll to the top of the scumbag food chain.
The movie takes about 20 or so minutes to establish itself story wise and then its seatbelt time.
To put in perspective how much I enjoyed this movie,let me tell you that the theater where I watched it had the sound cut out for minutes at a time ,several times.The audience all received vouchers for a free movie in the end but for the most part we were all so engrossed in the movie that the technical mess ups barely made a difference in our enjoyment as an audience.
Also noteworthy is Neeson's soon to be infamous delivery of his speech to the baddies via cell phone mere seconds after his daughter is taken.It ranks right up there with" hello Clarise" and "go ahead, make my day"Its almost as if once he finishes his speech, you can see the terrible terrible fate of the man on the other end of the phone and you cant wait for it to happen.
One more note before I stop gushing about this one, wait for the scene with Liam and his old friend/contact and his friends wife having dinner together.It is soooo well written and almost jaw dropping as it unfolds.
Thats enough for now I suppose and if you havent guessed, I recommend this one to anyone who liked The Professional or Death wish or any early Seagal movies.
Rating 3 1/2 throat chops out of 5.