In the pantheon of great Luc Besson headbusters (Nikita, Leon, The Transporter etc.) this is one of his best, a ripping kidnap yarn done with a post-Bourne sensibility and a surprising action turn from a reinvented Liam Neeson. As an aging ex-CIA operative, he adds gravitas to a project which could easily have been given to someone like Jason Statham, and there’s a giddy, comic relish in seeing the former Michael Collins and Oskar Schindler go batshit crazy with an arsenal of heavy artillery and lightening martial arts skills. It is testament to Neeson’s talents that you actually believe any of this carnage.

Neeson plays the divorced father of a 17 year old girl who plans a trip to Paris and is promptly kidnapped by an Albanian prostitution racket. Even the French police seem to be cashing in on the scheme. But the thugs clearly picked the wrong Dad to mess with, as Neeson boards a plane and starts smashing skulls, rampaging through Paris with the aid of slick surveillance skills and a violent ability to extract information using whatever means necessary. An unlikely hit, well paced and great fun.