A ring of Albanian white slavers (Middle Eastern buyers) has the bad fortune to shanghai the virgin daughter of a retired American superspy — “I was a preventer,” he understates — on her first morning of vacation in Paris. There is no satisfaction in the quick-as-a-blink detective work that leads him to them, only satisfaction, for those who can take it, in watching him mow them down, a Weedwacker in a field of dandelions. (Too late to “prevent” the kidnapping, but not too late for the defiling.) Nor is there satisfaction in watching an eye-lifty Liam Neeson playing Steven Seagal. Nor in watching the native director, Pierre Morel, sell out his country on top of himself. Catharsis, you learn anew, can’t come out of crud. A hot shower afterwards would be your closest approximation. Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Olivier Rabourdin. (2009) — Duncan Shepherd
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