Taken parents guide

Taken Parent Guide

If you can put the troubling theme aside, and approach this as an action movie, you'll see a lot of Jason Bourne in Liam Neeson's character.

Overall C+

What would you do to save your daughter? Former spy Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is willing to do anything, even dust off his retired skills and shake-up old contacts after his teen-aged daughter (Maggie Grace) is Taken by a ruthless gang and sold into the sex-trade.

Release date January 30, 2009

Violence D+
Sexual Content C-
Profanity C-
Substance Use C-

Why is Taken rated PG-13? The MPAA rated Taken PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, some drug references and language.

Run Time: 89 minutes

Official Movie Site

Parent Movie Review

Here’s a movie that will help any overly possessive father feel vindicated about their desire to know what their daughter is up to at any given moment. When 17-year-old Kim (Maggie Grace) reveals to her estranged father Bryan (Liam Neeson) that she wants to travel to Paris with her 19-year-old friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy), Dad’s reaction is anything but encouraging. Part of the problem is he’s a retired CIA agent and consequently well aware of the risks two blithe young girls may face in a foreign country.

Sadly, his fears are proven correct just minutes after the duo lands and meet the handsome Peter (Nicolas Giraud) who talks them into sharing a taxi. What they don’t know is their newfound friend works for a criminal network. Shortly after they are dropped off at the apartment where they are planning to stay, a gang barges in and abducts both teens. On the phone to her father when the attackers arrive, Kim’s final screams, along with an abductor’s threatening words, provide the only clues Bryan has to find his daughter. Hopping a jet to France, he immediately sets out to rescue his girl, regardless of who or what may stand in his way.

Of all movie protagonists, the determined parent is likely the most virulent and is the perfect weapon for a scriptwriter looking to put maximum damage on the screen with ironclad justification. A deadly force of one, Bryan is able to kill with his hands, and is even more effective when holding a gun or administering torture techniques—in this case electrocution. Following a trail that begins with Peter and eventually leads to corrupt French police, nasty Albanians and wealthy Arabs, Bryan mows down a plethora of assailants and breaks dozens of laws. While blood effects are minimized, violent altercations are frequent and the body count mounts in nearly every scene.

Other topics parents will face is the sex trade and portrayal of young women who have been lured or forced into a drug dependency to keep them in a semi-conscious state so their services may be sold to willing customers. This film doesn’t include overt nudity or sexual activity, but scenes do depict young women in minimal dress, some of whom are seen with men. Discussions surrounding these issues are included, along with some moderate and mild profanities.

If you can put the troubling theme aside, and approach this as an action movie, you’ll see a lot of Jason Bourne in Liam Neeson’s character. Unstoppable, he is able to demonstrate skills that range from high-speed driving against the flow of a one-way street to nursing a drug overdosed patient back to life with a selection of medications. This guy doesn’t leave us thinking for a moment that he won’t reach his goal and provide us with the foregone conclusion. He’s not quite James Bond, but he will certainly never be taken or stirred.

Starring Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen. Running time: 89 minutes. Theatrical release January 30, 2009. Updated

Taken
Rating & Content Info

Why is Taken rated PG-13? Taken is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for intense sequences of violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, some drug references and language.

This film about a father trying to rescue his daughter from the European sex trade features discussions about that topic, along with many scenes of aggressive violence. The protagonist is able to kill with his hands and confronts a variety of enemies that he strangles, stabs, bludgeons, shoots or tortures (one extended scene shows a man tied to a chair through which electricity is applied). Most of the violence is bloodless, however this is a film about vengeance and no regard is given to asking questions before enacting vigilante force. Women are seen, some of them partially clad and drugged, in a prostitution operation. A young woman states her desire of wanting a man to sleep with her. Language includes some mild and moderate profanities, along with scatological expletives and terms of deity. Social drinking is portrayed. Addictive drugs are used to subdue women.

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Taken Parents' Guide

This movie contains characters of various ethnicities. What roles do the French play? The Albanians? The Arabs? How do these compare to the American characters?

What techniques do the screenwriters use to justify Bryan’s violence? Why can he not turn to the police for help? How is the perceived time constraint (he is told he probably only has 96 hours to find his daughter) used to motivate his actions?

Home Video

The most recent home video release of Taken movie is May 12, 2009. Here are some details…

Home Video Notes: Taken

Release Date: 12 May 2009

Taken releases to DVD in widescreen, with audio tracks in Dolby Digital 5.1 (English) and Dolby Digital Surround (French and Spanish). Subtitles are available in English, French and Spanish.

There is also a Blu-ray edition of Taken. Presented in widescreen, the disc offers audio tracks in DTS HD Master Audio (English) and Dolby Digital 5.1 (French and Spanish), with subtitles in English, French and Spanish.

Both the DVD and Blu-ray versions of Taken provide the following bonus materials:

- Featurettes: Black OPS Field Manual, Le Making Of, Avant Premiere and Inside Action (6 Side by Side Comparisons).

- Audio Commentary: Director Pierre Morel, Cinematographer Michel Abramowicz and Michel Julienne and Writer Robert Mark Kamen.

- Trailers: Wolverine, Street Fighter, 12 Rounds, Notorious and Possession.

- Digital Copy of Taken.

Related home video titles:

Flightplan features Jody Foster as a desperate mother who has lost her child on a large airplane. Brokedown Palace tells the story of two young girls who unwittingly become drug “mules” in a foreign country.

 

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