Taken: The Search for Sophie Parker (2013)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Is this rubbish really based on a true story? Only if one redefines the words based and true. It is part fantasy - the type in which the women do the business - and part propaganda document. Does sex trafficking even exist? Sure it does, but rather than girls being kidnapped off the street and sold into slavery it consists overwhelmingly of women prostituting themselves. True, this sort of thing can get really sordid, especially when some of those involved are of a tender age, but let's not kid ourselves, there are not millions of women sold into slavery every year - this is the new narrative, one spun by the same sordid feminist mafia that tried to convince us that porn is rape.So what does "Taken..." have to offer? Well, if you like seeing women outfighting, outkicking and outkilling men, all power to your elbow. It remains to be seen what it does for East-West relations in a post-Glastnost age, but if your teenage daughter goes out drinking or clubbing, worry about more mundane things, like someone stealing her mobile phone.

****SPOILERS*** Suposidely based on a true story? this Lifetime version of the movie or movies-there's already three of them and possibly more to follow-"Taken" has pistol packing gun toting momma Stevie Parker, Julie Benz, and her all in leathered, when she off duty as a CIA bodyguard, Nadia,Amy Bialey,take on the entire Russian Mafia who kidnapped her sweet but clueless 17 year old daughter Sophia,Naomi Battrick, and her friend the boy hungry Janie Hillman, Jamma Dallender, to be sold into a lifetime of slavery to an international pedophile ring. The two girls were tricked into sneaking out of the safety of the US Embassy who Jamma's dad-Alastair MacKenzie- is the US Ambassador to the Russian Republic by the cute and cuddly Russian party boy Bobby, Matvey Borushko, to join the party at a nearby Moscow bar-disco. It's there where they were drugged kidnapped and later to be sold into sexual slavery by the Russian Mafia.Back in NYC tough undercover policewoman Stevie Parker in finding out her daughter Sophie together with Jenie's lives as well as honor are in danger shoots off to Moscow on the first plane out of JFK Airport determined to rescue them with or without the Moscow PD as well as Russian Government's help. It doesn't take long for Stevie to figure out that some, not all, members of the Moscow PD are working with the Russian Mafia in this slave dealing business. Getting in touch with the girls CIA bodyguard Nadia Stevie goes all out to rescue the girls with the threat of being, for sticking their noses where they don't belong, thrown out of the country or even arrested.***SPOILERS*** It turns out the head of this white slavery ring is Chechnian mobster Sergei Aka Mr. Red, Velislav Pavlov, who's a dead ringer for the now speaker of the house Rep. Paul Ryan; Can they be one and the same persons? It's Mr. Red who's working out the the swank Moscow Kempinski Hotel where he sells off the girls to the highest bidders there from the world of finance entertainment and political corruption. Stevie ends up torturing the truth out of corrupt Moscow cop Makhail, Andrew Bayron, and leaving him with a fully loaded gun, that he somehow doesn't use on her, to blow his brains out before the Russian Mafia does it. Stevie & Nadia are then off to the races in saving Sophie, Janie was rescued earlier in the movie, and smash and put an end to Mr. Red's white slavery operation. Wild and unbelievable final that outdoes any of the "Taken" movies that has to be seen to be believed with Stevie & Nadia out shooting out fighting as well as out smarting the entire Russian mob without as much as getting their fingernails clipped or hair mussed up: But still as entertaining as hell that keeps you from tiring off the movie just to see how ridicules it is and can get.P.S Filmed in Bulgaria that substituted for Moscow Russia showed just how smart the Russian Government under Vladimir Putin was in preventing the movie from being filmed there. It would have made the Russian Government as well as Putin the laughing stock of the whole world in seeing just how insane they were in how the film depicted them!

Geez! where should i start?I thought i was watching a soap opera or a romance developing in the beginning of this movie.Hard to believe the calm demeanor of these 2 parents that realized their girls were both kidnapped and missing.The mother barely showed any emotion other than flirting with both her partner and the ambassador which was ridiculous after finding out your daughter is missing,or possibly dead.I was in a state of LIKE SERIOUSLY? when both women decided to confront and chase after these dangerous kidnappers and mobsters on their own using their sexuality to approach more than one situation.I was already bored half way through it.Who in the world would believe that this one woman can go hunt down such dangerous people and investigate mostly on her own. The ambassador's daughter was taken along with her daughter and this one woman along with the security watch woman that usually watches the girls,but conveniently had the night off are suppose to somehow kick ass and find a way to trace the girls whereabouts.Totally delusional plot and story line.Again i will say,i have never seen a mother more at peace and relaxed about her daughter missing,then for some moments into the show the actual Russian police, who we all know would never allow a woman to call the shots,let alone have a gun running around seeking her own justice.I mean really?The police are usually corrupt and on the inside of these type of crimes,kidnappings and trafficking women for a monetary fee themselves to look the other way.Anyway,the police finally joins this woman to search while the other woman security assist her as well, to find the girls.These two women threw me off during time spent together with the almost sensual energy and chemistry between them both. Anyhow,they join forces to find the girls.She finds her daughter,then,if you can believe she still feels she needs to risk her life even more and decide to be in pursuit of the ambassador's daughter who was sold.I mean Get real! But like i said,the affection between these two women i did not at all understand it.They were both too cozy and comfortable with each other for having just met,so in my opinion,this was someone's dawg gawn fantasy.I barely call movies stupid,but it was NOT at all worth me watching.It was not realistic,but perhaps it was not made to be,but even worst,the actors simply can't act.It was poor acting,especially the lead actress.I wont even bother to mention the ending,because it's not even worthy of being mentioned.

This Lifetime movie is not one of their true life crime pictures, but rather a variation on Liam Neeson's own movie of the same name. There are parallels, as NYC cop Benz sees off her daughter and friend on a trip to Moscow. Despite trying to warn her about the dangers, its clear the airhead will soon be ignoring mom and looking for fun in a foreign land. When the inevitable happens and the girls are snatched by a sex trafficking gang, Benz snaps into action. She flies to Russia, takes no guff from the ineffective cops, and with help from an Embassy security officer, is soon gunning down Russkie gangsters as she hones in on the captives. The men here are hopeless, either obstructive, unhelpful or murderous. It makes a refreshing change to see a movie where two women take bold decisions. This is a great opportunity for the versatile Benz, who could have a whole new career if there only there was a demand for female action films . She continues to make interesting choices and it doesn't hurt that she is also insanely attractive