Such a little crowd pleaser is Taken, a short and sweet kidnapping thriller set in the US and France.

Directed by Pierre Morel, the film stars Liam Neeson as retired CIA operative Bryan Mills.

Mills is divorced from his wife (Famke Janssen) and is now trying to make up for lost time in the relationship with his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace), who has just turned 17.

Not only a protective parent, but a protective ex-CIA parent at that, his world is thrown into disarray when she is kidnapped, along with her 19-year-old friend, after the pair are set-up as they arrive in Paris for a holiday.

As luck would have it, however, as the abduction is taking place in their apartment, his daughter is on her cell phone to her father.

Using his years of Government agency experience – and the help of his former CIA buddies – to unscramble snippets of information, Mills’ own personal mission to track down his daughter in the French capital begins.

By doing so he enters the seedy but lucrative world of slave trading – where young female travellers are kidnapped into a life of drugs and prostitution, or sold for hundreds of thousands of Euros.

This is a world inhabited by foreign gangs, with their masters assuming the mantle of wealthy, respectable ‘businessmen.’

It’s also a world of corruption in the upper echelons of law and order.

So against these odds, Mills finds himself on his own, relying on his combat, survival and technical skills to attempt to locate and rescue his daughter.

Although in somewhat unfamiliar territory as an action hero, Liam Neeson is impressive as the former CIA man – something of a Jason Bourne senior figure, and a man you’d definitely want on your side in a crisis.

He certainly looks the part, and indeed it is his film, as he battles his way against a constant supply of thuggish gang members, dispatching them with ruthless efficiency, until he gets to the man at the top.

Certainly those who enjoyed the Bourne series and other Euro thrillers such as 1998’s Ronin will be more than satisfied with the Parisian locations.

There are also some impressive set pieces, including a 4x4 vehicle chase on a construction site, invariably accompanied by a Euro rock soundtrack.

It’s a film that you don’t have to think too much about and at just under 95 minutes, moves along at a fair pace.

Director Pierre Morel makes good use of the Paris locations, and with a screenplay co-written by Robert Mark Kamen and Luc Besson, the story ensures that you do care about the central characters and especially Mills’ plight.

One to sit back and enjoy.

by Angus Henderson

Star rating HHHH