I thought the Jedi were supposed to control their emotions, Qui-Gon: "Taken"

We won't get carried away here, because in the end this is movie is merely OK. But you know what? When you get beat over the head about a movie months in advance, then see a trailer that looks OK, then read reviews that are generally good, and you like the actor and story well enough, you end up with a case where not bad is kind of good.

Our story: Liam Neeson -- generally a capital S serious actor -- plays a retired CIA agent who's estranged from his daughter. It doesn't help that his work made him a little paranoid. We get his bonafides early on, right around the same time we learn his teenage daughter (Maggie Grace) is kind of a twit and his ex-wife (Famke Janssen) is a grade-A b*tch. (I used to be a huge Janssen fan between "GoldenEye" and "Rounders." The "X-Men" movies wore me down, and this has about killed it.)

Of course, our hero's fears are realized when he foolishly agrees to let his little girl head to Paris with a friend, and the dimwitted duo promptly get kidnapped. Turns out the men who snatched them have very bad plans, but hey, now Daddy gets a chance to use those skills he left behind at the Agency! Got to stay sharp, right?

So that's the simple plot: Man tries to find daughter and cracks skulls along the way. And at 90 minutes of running time, that's enough. No one will confuse this with Neeson's real acting work, i.e. "Kinsey," "Rob Roy" or "Schindler's List." But hey, this guy also was in "Darkman," "Next of Kin" and ... wait for it ... "Krull." And while doing an action-thriller in your later '50s might seem odd, consider that our man Liam is signed up for remakes of "The A-Team" and "Clash of the Titans." (By the gods!) So yeah, he's not above some silly popcorn fare.

Ultimately, "Taken" sets the stage over 30 minutes, then -- after that cool kidnapping scene we've all seen in the trailer -- races along the remaining hour. It delivers some solid action, a couple of "holy sh*t" scenes -- I mean, he shot a dude's wife -- and plenty of growling by the the guy who played a lion not so long ago. A lesser actor probably couldn't have pulled it off, especially some of the more credibility-stretching scenes. But Neeson, in large part because this is a different thing for him, was all right. Why yes, I guess you could say I was ... taken.

(Thank you, folks! I'll be here all week. Try the veal.)