From NetFlix:
While vacationing with a friend in Paris, an American girl (Maggie Grace) is kidnapped by a gang of human traffickers intent on selling her into forced prostitution. Working against the clock, her ex-spy father (Liam Neeson) must pull out all the stops to save her. But with his best years possibly behind him, the job may be more than he can handle. Famke Janssen also stars in this relentless action-thriller from director Pierre Morel.
Perhaps we should rate these kidnap-revenge films by body count. Either Man on Fire (2004) or this film might be clear winners. In fact both films share a common laughable trait: Denzel Washington in the former and Liam Neeson in this film are presented as outrageous superheros who never fail in each encounter with villainous bad guys. Liam Neeson never met a neck he couldn’t break. Only once is our hero trapped (in a Parisian underground auction house for kidnapped virgins to be purchased by shieks) and even then his chains pull miraculously from the ceiling.
Perhaps we should rate these films by stereotypes encountered. In “Man on Fire” Mexico was the cliché target. In this film consider:
- Albanians are genetically inclined to kidnap well-off young female tourists in order to make them drug addicts and prostitutes.
- French bureaucrats are mostly corrupt.
- Wealthy sheiks purchase kidnapped virgins for their evil purposes
- You really don’t love your daughter unless you give her a horse on one of her birthdays.
- American spy operatives are in such incredible physical shape that they can outrun automobiles (and speeding bullets).
- And the list goes on.
My big disappointment was that in the end our hero did not taunt his ex-wife with a really nasty “I told you so!”. And, by the way, the lead up to his agreeing to let his 17 year old daughter travel with a (really dizzy) girl friend to Paris is well done.
Despite all these objections, I was glued to the screen. But then I LOVE TRASH