TAKEN (2009) (**1/2)
The BOURNE series has influenced every spy film that has followed. The action is grittier and the agents are skilled beyond belief. Co-written and produced by LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL's Luc Besson, this twist on the genre gives its super spy a personal agenda. His daughter has been kidnapped by a human trafficking ring.
Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson, SCHINDLER'S LIST) was a CIA agent before he retired in an effort to get to know his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace, TV's LOST) better. His job made him absent from her life and now that she's 16, he wants to make up for lost time. But old pops can't compete with Stuart (Xander Berkeley, YEAR ONE), the rich husband of her mother Lenore (Famke Janssen, X-MEN). I mean he can buy her a pony. Bryan especially looks bad when he has problems letting Kim go on a European trip with her friend. He reluctantly agrees, but his instincts were good. Barely off the plane in Paris, she is abducted.