"I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."

With a movie as monothematic as "Taken," the filmmakers can cut right to the chase--literally (after a brief setup and introduction of characters, that is). And that's to the advantage of a picture like this, which draws its irrefutable strength from the protagonist's resolute purpose and thirst for vengeance. Here we have 91 minutes of no-bullshit, balls-to-the-wall urgency that any viewer with a pulse can relate to--the kidnapping of a loved one and the race against time to retrieve her before the unthinkable happens. Here are the major takeaways from our group discussion on "Taken":

WHAT DID YOU FIND INTERESTING, MEMORABLE AND DIFFERENT ABOUT TAKEN, PARTICULARLY COMPARED TO OTHER ACTION THRILLERS?

• It grips you with its emotional pull and sentimentality right away, making Mills a sympathetic figure and this a very black-and-white, good guy vs. bad guys story. With nothing to cloud our moral judgement or rooting interest, it’s easier to just enjoy the thrill ride and focus on the protagonist’s modus operandi.
• Despite being a predictable film in which we know ahead of time that the daughter is going to be kidnapped and the father is going to kick some ass in getting her back, it does a masterful job of keeping us in suspense, tightening the knot, and keeping us emotionally invested.
• Liam Neeson really looks this part; it’s important that we believe he’s physically and emotionally capable of taking on the villains here; while some action scenes are implausible (like taking on 6 guys at once), Neeson has an imposing physicality and steely determination in his face—coupled with a “hangdog Irish mug that makes both the innocence of (his) love and its fierceness intensely believable,” wrote Salon critic Stephanie Zacharek.
• The runtime is relatively brief (91 minutes); this is a lean, mean fighting machine of a motion picture with no fat to trim, no superfluous scenes, no subplots that are romantic or otherwise, no unnecessary exposition and backstory to linger on for long.
• Unlike James Bond films and other slick modern action thrillers, this movie is not really about gadgets and technology, although cell phones and surveillance equipment are important tools for Mills.

“TAKEN” BELONGS TO A SUBGENRE CALLED THE VIGILANTE FILM. WHAT ARE SOME HALLMARKS AND TRAITS OF MANY VIGILANTE PICTURES, AND CAN NAME ANY OTHER VIGILANTE FILMS?

• Vigilante films usually feature a sole hero or anti-hero who decides to take the law into his or her own hands—wandering outside the boundaries of the law and normal conventions and living by their own moral code.
• Vigilante films almost always depict graphic onscreen violence or suggest abhorrent off-screen violence; the instigating violence is typically the catalyst that sets the protagonist in motion (e.g., rape, torture, and/or killing of a loved one).
• As the film progresses, typically the level of violence increases, with each instance sometimes topping the last in terms of disturbance value, brutality, gore and mercilessness.
• To be crowd-pleasing, satisfying wish fulfilment pictures, vigilante movies have to fulfill the audience’s wish: that is, for the hero or anti-hero to get revenge and take out the antagonists with extreme prejudice and often creative punishment that can serve as poetic justice.
• Early examples include Dirty Harry, Billy Jack, Death Wish and its sequels, Straw Dogs, and Walking Tall. More recent examples include Law Abiding Citizen, Django Unchained, and A Man Apart.

OTHER MOVIES THAT REMIND US OF TAKEN:

• The Bourne film series
• Man on Fire
• Ransom
• Snitch
• Not Without My Daughter
• The Man From Nowhere
• Leon: The Professional