Taken (Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace) – Imagine Jason Bourne is 15-20 years older, has a daughter he spent little time with because he’s been in the government’s spy service, and decides to retire to get to know her better. Welcome to Taken. Just as you had to stretch to think of Matt Damon as an action spy hero in Bourne, you’ll have to do the same with Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills here. The premise and the plot are implausible, of course. The daughter (Grace) goes with a friend to Paris against every instinct dad has. She gets kidnapped as part of an organized slave trade masterminded by the Albanians (apparently, Albanians are really good as selling young women), which has expanded its prey to single women traveling through Europe. Mills’ daughter witnesses her friend’s kidnapping, calls her dad, follows his instructions, and winds up gone. Mills then calls on his own “special skills” to hunt down the kidnappers and try to recover his daughter before it’s too late. Fifty or more dead people later, we come to the denouement. Is there a doubt as to how it will end? Maybe. Will Mills be able to get his daughter back or pay the ultimate sacrifice for his years of neglect? This film is scoring both big box office and high viewer ratings on IMDB. It is an unexpected performance from Neeson and an exceptional directorial job by Pierre Morel, a cinematographer whose only previous director credit is for a futuristic action film called Banlieue 13. He is currently directing a film called From Paris With Love, starring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.