Tokarev - ‘Taken’ it is not

If you know your recent action movies then you’ll probably have seen Liam Neeson in ‘Taken’ he’s a former killer of one description or another and his daughter gets kidnapped, so he must utilise his skills and avenge her.  I guess Nicholas Cage’ films haven’t exactly been setting the Box Office alight lately (anyone remember the remake of ‘The Wicker Man’ and that one when he and Ron Perlman were in medieval times?  No?  You’re not the only one!) so he must have figured that, being an ‘elder statesman’ of the action genre, he could try his hand at a bit of parental retribution.

The trouble is... the ‘avenge your daughter’ story has already been done by Liam Neeson (very well!) therefore when another film comes along that is basically the same, it just gives off the feeling that we’ve seen it all before.

Whereas Liam Neeson was CIA, Nicholas Cage was a former gangster.  Now, after he’s ‘gone straight’ someone kidnaps his daughter and he has to take matters into his own hands to find out the perpetrators etc.  If you’re a huge fan of Cage then you’ll probably get more out of this than most.  However, even from a die-hard fan’s perspective, this is hardly his ‘finest hour.’ He’s simply going through the motions.  Danny Glover is also in it, but he’s basically a side-plot to the main story and his character could probably have been written out of the story completely, as he doesn’t really have much to work with and therefore doesn’t add much to the overall story.

Expect punch-ups, car chases and shoot outs – pretty much what you’d expect from any other ‘straight-to-DVD’ action flick.  It’s okay, but nothing that memorable.  

The best part comes near the end.  I won’t spoil it for you, but I actually enjoyed the final ‘reveal’ – if you watch the film you’ll understand what I mean.  However, a nice ending doesn’t really mask the fact that ‘Tokarev’ is mediocre at best.

5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back