4 stars****
One man army, Liam Neeson, shows us how he takes on ruthless gangland murderers, drug and people traffickers, to make his daughter safe. He should have taken some friends along for help, but he chose to go it alone, after all, he was CIA trained, probably as a one man terminator.
Screenplay writer Luc Besson has put together an excellent premise; don’t kidnap the daughter of a hired legal killer unless you want to die. In keeping with Besson’s previous work (Léon, always comes to mind), he maintains a high standard.
Liam Neeson shouldn’t be able to carry out his rescue mission alone, but we go with the flow and find great credibility is his methods. Okay, once or twice we thought that maybe his actions were a little bit, well, impractical, but he overcame this with a thoroughly consistent performance of a driven man, determined to save his daughter.
Famke Janssen puts in a good show as the irritating former wife; there must have been trouble when they were married the way she goes on and on at him and treats him so poorly. Before nagging, did she forget he killed for a living or was she hoping that as his child’s mother, she might get away with it?
A $45 million budget gets eaten up running around Paris. The return on the investment hasn’t broken even yet, but the movie is well worth seeing; it floats by so quickly that you lose the body count, but it’s everyone that gets in Neeson’s way. I can assure you it’s high enough; the local army, navy and air force should be out to stop him, but he’s ahead of everyone with his thinking and planning. He can shoot people from difficult angles, while they miss him with automatic weapons; reminding you of John Wayne movies.
Just why did his daughter lie to him just to get away to Europe for a holiday? Didn’t she trust her father?
This movie wins high on the entertainment level, rather than looking to be an intellectual film.
Popularity: 5% [?]
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