The last time I remember seeing Liam Neeson was in Schindler's List a couple years back and I was both amazed and captivated by his performance. So I decided to checkout one of his more recent efforts and I got to say Taken is underrated in the action-thriller genre.

Taken follows the story of Bryan Mills (Liam Neesoon), a divorced, retired government agent out to search for his kidnap daughter in Paris. While Taken does venture into familiar territory, it's well written with a believable protagonist and an interesting plot to keep anyone engage. Unlike most action movies we have Liam Neeson who's an actor first and an action star second. You'll definitely care about him thanks to his great performance and is surprisingly very believable when he kills henchmen after henchmen. He's easily the best part of the movie aside from the well told and thrilling plot. What's surprise me most of all is that it wasn't better received by critics. Sure Taken doesn't break any new ground, but it's much better than your average action flick as even the dramatic scenes are as entertaining as the action set-pieces. Not only is it well shot with a tense atmosphere keeping you at the edge of your seat, it also got good acting which is hard to come by in this genre.

Despite feeling familiar to other action-thrillers, Taken is ultimately fun entertainment. With a well told story that has an interesting leading character and enough violence to satisfy, Taken is a blast from beginning to end.