While vacationing with a friend in Paris, an American girl is kidnapped by a gang of human traffickers intent on selling her into forced prostitution. 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.
It's the big, dolorous Neeson who makes the movie a keeper.
– David Edelstein,
New York Magazine/Vulture,
2 Feb 2009
rotten:
[Neeson's] performance is the most perturbing thing in the film, even more so than its electrical-torture sequence or its revelations about sex-trafficking.
– Anthony Lane,
New Yorker,
2 Feb 2009
rotten:
Taken is the kind of exploitative junk everyone expects from no-talent French hack Luc Besson.
– Rex Reed,
New York Observer,
4 Feb 2009
rotten:
You've just kidnapped the wrong teenager, Mister Foreign Slave Trader Man.
– Richard Roeper,
Richard Roeper.com,
7 Feb 2009
rotten:
It's fun for about 15 minutes seeing Neeson do James Bond as Daddy Dangerous. But the surprise wears off quickly.