What a waste of my time!!!

Charming and brutal

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Wow.. this film i would class as a rare perfection. Brilliant fight scenes, car chases and superb acting. I feel Liam Neeson is at his best here. I've always been a big fan of his but here he is definitely at his best. The scenes of gathering information about Bryan Mill's daughter is very well executed. Very clever ways were used in order to extract information and i liked that alot. The only downside i can think of is that its to short and some scenes i think could have been stretched longer to give more actors a chance to show of their characters. Apart from that this is an absolute masterpiece, watch it now!

'Taken' garnered mixed to average reviews critically and still is, looking at the reviews here, a film that divides audiences. Can see both sides, being one who was mixed to moderately liked the film. It is interesting for being one of Liam Neeson's first endeavours as an action hero, and considering that the trailer was an intriguing one and Neeson has always been very watchable and often very good the potential was there.As was said regarding 2011's 'Unknown' recently, 'Taken's' potential wasn't fully lived up to. Enough of 'Taken' does work, or at least to me it did (not everybody will agree and that's fine by me), but also from personal opinion what could have been a pretty good film turned out to be an above average but uneven one that could have done much more with what it had. It entertains and intrigues, but doesn't wow. Really liked the rawness and slickness of the way 'Taken' was shot and edited, and the bleakness and grit of the rest of the production values suited the tone and genre perfectly. It's nicely scored, not intrusive but having presence, and the direction is solid.There is enough taut suspense and fun to keep one gripped and the violence is uncompromisingly brutal and leaves one biting the nails. The sound effects are thrilling in authenticity and will leave one wincing in shock, with it adding hugely to the harrowing effect of the action. Neeson is a very commanding presence on screen and there is energy to the directing.It is a shame though that, excepting Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen, the rest of the cast fail to match him or engage, being largely indifferent. The script also doesn't excite, descending into too much cheese and tedium and tending to lack clarity, subtlety.Despite it being fun, slick, gritty and generally taut, the story is far too predictable and gets far too far-fetched and over-the-top in the latter stages. The violence, while thrilling and well done on its own, tends to overpower the basic drama of the story, so things feel unbalanced. The characters are pretty sketchy.Overall, above average but uneven and more a mixed to moderately liked sort of film. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Taken has been widely considered a great cinematic action film experience as it combines action and suspense and overall thrills from start to finish. Having seen the sequels before the original, one can agree that the original does live up to the hype and is massively more concise and arguably the best film of the franchise. Liam Neeson plays his role as one should and is convincing in the role, as well as the supporting cast of the daughter played by Maggie Grace and his ex-wife played by Famke Janssen. Another great thing about Taken is the length of the film, as we have seen many action films drag on with little subplots we do not care for, but with Taken the film isn't too long and every piece of screen time is vital. Overall, Taken delivers on what it should as an intense and thrilling action piece of art.

Taken was popular when it was released in 2008, so popular in fact that it sprouted 2 sequels. All I can say after watching this however is that I won't be watching the others. the main problem with this film is that it rarely breaks from being an unnecessary dim-lit chain of jump cuts and over-the-shoulder dialogue shots. There is little here to please the eye. The only thing this film has to offer is the interesting (though often poorly thought out) methods the main antagonist uses to get his own way. If it wasn't for Liam Neeson, I'd give this a 4/10. While I'm not specifically a fan of him, his chilling performance takes a mess of an action movie and dresses it up slightly.