"Taken" was a pleasant surprise from Avalanche Home Entertainment. This past year (and with them teaming up under the Lion's Gate umbrella), their films seem to be improving and are actually good. Dabney Coleman did a fine job as a millionaire who gets kidnapped. The difference here is that people (mainly his wife!) has second thoughts about paying the ransom to get him back and now he is left up to his own devices to get out of this sticky situation. Coleman is often underrated as an actor and dismissed as simply a comedy or family film guy ("Tootsie", "Stuart Little", "Recess", etc.) but he has a strong range and can do suspense-drama very well as shown in "Taken." I'm not too familiar with the rest of the cast, but they all compliment the film well and while yes, this is a b-movie, what's wrong with that? It's still enjoyable and after some recent big-budget hollywood stinkers, it can be refreshing to watch a tiny little film that is more entertaining even though you may never have heard of it.
