Short Review

Don’t mess with Liam Neeson. Seriously, that guy is a badass. Neeson plays ex-CIA agent Bryan Mills, whose daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), is going on vacation to Paris with a friend. He happens to be on the phone with Kim when intruders break in to their Paris penthouse. He vows to find them, flies to France and prepares to wreak havoc. As promised, asses are kicked, shot and karate-chopped. It’s almost not even fair to give credit to anyone other than Neeson in this film. Everyone else is secondary. And while he’s excellent throughout, it’s when the film tries to be a drama that it falls short. Scenes between him, his ex-wife (a cold Famke Janssen) and Kim are cliché, and the interaction between Mills and his old CIA buddies seems forced, as if these introductions are really just in place to get the action rolling. But that’s OK. Once the car chases get going and the body count starts to rise, you forget about all that incidental stuff anyway. Feather River Cinemas, Paradise Cinema 7 and Tinseltown. Rated PG-13