In for a ride

It’s a simple story: Man loses daughter; man must get her back.

But when written by the team who brought us “The Karate Kid,” “The Fifth Element” and the “Transporter” franchise, audiences are about to be “Taken” for a ride.

Liam Neeson plays Bryan Mills, an ex-CIA spy whose daughter has been kidnapped by sex traffickers while vacationing in Europe. Urged on by his frigid ex-wife (Famke Janssen, “X-Men”), he uses his skills and contacts as a former spy to track down the bad guys and force-feed them a heaping spoonful of revenge.

With his gravitas and emotional depth, Neeson gives this movie a credibility that sets it apart from similar films such as “The Transporter.” He transforms this movie into an entirely different animal, giving it a firm foothold in the drama genre instead of just action.

Don’t get me wrong, though; there is plenty of action. I had never really thought of Liam Neeson as a hard-core action star before, until I remembered his roles in “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” and “Batman Begins.”

He plows his way through hordes of bad guys using guns, knives and good old-fashioned fisticuffs.

The martial arts and gunplay are choreographed in a brutal and efficient manner, leaving out the flying roundhouse kicks in favor of neck-snapping kicks to the groin and “shocking” torture scenes.

The style made it entirely believable that a 56-year-old man could fight his way through the entire Albanian mafia.

At its core, this movie is a rip-roaring action adventure that doesn’t aspire to have any great depth or art. It is well-crafted and thought-out, and the execution is flawless. It is perfect way to spend a couple of hours on a cold, snowy night.