Stolen (2012) - Karmode Reviews

The father of a kidnapped teenage girl must use his particular set of skills - acquired over a very long career - to look for, find, and kill his daughter's captors. This simple but engrossing premise is perfect for the action movie genre, and makes you wonder, why did no one think of it before?

If it's never-before-seen action sequences you're after, look no further than this straight-to-DVD flick. Will Montgomery (Nicolas Cage) does everything he can to find his taken - I mean stolen - daughter, even when it means breaking the law, artfully dodging the authorities, driving the wrong way into incoming traffic, escaping life and death situations by the skin of his teeth, crashing cars, engaging in fist fights, shooting guns, jumping off high things to things slightly lower down, holding dramatic phone conversations with the man who took- I mean stole - his daughter. Basically anything you've never seen in a movie before.

Now, at the start of the film, Cage's character does not know who the antagonist is, or what he wants. He explains that he doesn't have any money, if it is indeed a ransom the antagonist is after, which it is. But fortunately for Will Montgomery's taken - I mean stolen daughter, her father has a particular set of skills, skills that make him a nightmare for somebody like the taxi-driving uniped who has taken - I mean stolen her.

Of course, underlying all this carefully constructed and choreographed violence is a moving sentiment. The film is really about a man who loves his daughter, who is trying to make up for lost time but is faced with the barriers of their complicated relationship. To make things worse, the girl's mother is now with another man, which confuses Montgomery’s role as the father figure. If only there was some way to prove his love to her? Some way to demonstrate how much he cares? Something that allows him to utilise the skills that were established in the first twenty minutes of the movie? And that's when she's taken. I mean stolen.

From here the story is awash with twists and turns, keeping you glued firmly to the edge of your beanbag. Due to the sheer density of the action, there isn't much more I can talk about without mentioning spoilers, but what I will say is this: the bit at the end where he rescues his daughter from the boot of the sinking taxi and then is shot by the antagonist psychopath but kills him and then nearly dies but doesn't because the FBI show up and rescue him. That bit was great.

'Original' is a word rarely used to describe blockbuster action movies, and yet, there is no better word to describe Stolen. Director Simon West has taken - I mean stolen - I mean taken a genre and it's conventions and turned them completely on their head, creating a film unlike one we've ever seen before. There are lots of positive things to say about Taken, but four words sum it up better than any other:

One of a kind.