Taken

I was on a boat to Bruges and decided to go to the cinema. They were showing 3 films. The third escapes me, but the other two were Mama Mia and Taken.

I didn’t know anything really about Taken, except that Liam Neeson was in it. I like Liam Neeson and I hate Abba, so that was that sorted.

A couple of hours later I had a grin from ear to ear having just watched a terrific film.

Taken centres on a former CIA operative tracking down his daughter who has been kidnapped by Albanian's and fed into the human-trafficking system.

One of the joys of Taken is that that is all this film is about. His daughter is kidnapped, he heads off to get her back. That’s it. Many films would have heaped extra layers on it and twists and turns like the daughter turning out to be a Russian spy all along.

No. Taken goes from A – B, with the pedal to the floor and it is all the better for it.

Box office takings apparently stand at over $225m. I honestly didn't think it had done that well. It felt like a sleeper hit that grew through word of mouth and devleoped a cult following. But one thing is for certain, I haven't heard of anyone who's seen it and doesn't love it.

Nevertheless, I never expected a sequel. I still didn't believe it when rumours started to circulate. I began to come around when a few images were leaked onto the Internet, and then I accepted it when this grenade rolled into the room:

 

Boom! October 5th is the date when we get to see another round of Brian Mill's "particular set of skills". If it is half as good as the first one, it'll be something special.