From French director Pierre Morel (District: B13) comes one of the first action-suspense films of 2009. The trailer to the movie is misleading though; this is not a suspense movie with action thrown in. It’s a classic action movie through and through. This isn’t to say there isn’t suspense, but it is overshadowed by the high-paced action and the guilty pleasure of a bloody revenge flick.

Liam Neeson (Kingdom of Heaven, Batman Begins) plays Brian Mills, a “retired, but not dead” CIA “Preventer.” Though not much more detail is given about this vague job description, think Jason Bourne mixed with Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher (with the questionable ethics of Jack Bauer thrown in for good measure). He has retired so he can build a relationship with his daughter that he never had due to his job, much to the chagrin of his ex-wife Lenore.

After his daughter Kim’s (played by Maggie Grace), 17th birthday, she and her friend decide to travel to Paris. Needing both her parents’ consent to travel outside the country, she convinces her father to give his permission, which he reluctantly grants her, despite his fears about his underage daughter and her friend on their own in Europe. Not long after she arrives in Paris, Mill’s worst fears come true when his daughter and her friend are kidnapped by Albanian white-slavers (politically correctly referred to as “sex-traffickers”). What follows is a nonstop, gory mad dash through Paris as he tries to find his daughter before she is sold off to who knows where.

While the original plot is adequately unique (few movies are made about the very real problem of sex-slave trafficking), once the action starts, it reverts to the classic action movie devices of gun battles, sophisticated martial arts and car chases. This isn’t necessarily bad, as all of these scenes are well done, much better than most recent action films.

The score is subtle but very well done. The dialogue is a lot better than you’d expect from a typical action flick, but it is definitely not the focus of Taken. Character development apparently isn’t either. Mills is the only multi-dimensional character, while almost everyone else is the generic bad guy.

While it seems that Morel tries to throw in some social commentary about torture, it is quickly lost because you’re so compelled by Mills’ plight. There are also some minor plot holes, but they happen during the fast-paced part of the movie and are easy to overlook. If you are looking for a deep, suspenseful movie, you’ll be disappointed, but if you are looking for a good action/revenge movie that stands above the rest, you’ll enjoy this guilty-pleasure flick.