I didn’t read any reviews going in watching Tokarev. I just saw that it stars Nicolas Cage and being a big fan of Cage, I decided to watch this movie and then 15 minutes into the movie, I realize that this movie may be taking a plot out from Liam Neeson’s Taken.
But instead of a father who used to be a CIA operative, a respectable profession, Tokarev’s father is an ex-gangster, not a profession a child would be proud to advertise to her friends. Nevertheless, the love that both fathers portray in both movies drives them to rescue their only
daughter who has been kidnapped.However, that is where the similarities between these two movies end. When Neeson’s daughter is kidnapped in Taken, the audience is confident that Neeson will get his daughter back; after all he’s trained in such rescue missions. He’s made that very clear in his conversation with the people who have taken his daughter. The audience isn’t worried. The daughter will be rescued.
But in Tokarev, the audience isn’t sure because Cage portrays a respectable businessman whose criminal past isn’t really clear. He could have just been a small bit street criminal with no skills except perhaps to use a gun but it turns out that he used to be a gang member of an Irish mob. Still, his skills would be not on par with Neeson’s CIA background.
After I realize
that this is going to be another rescue/revenge movie, I thought the movie is going to be as predictable as Taken with the father/daughter reunion ending but that is where the movie surprised me. The daughter was killed and Cage is in rage and is seeking revenge.No other actor can do rage like Cage can and his rage is very real. His first suspicion is that his criminal past is catching up to him and he rounds up his old crew members to get revenge on whoever has killed his daughter.
Some critics are not impressed by this movie but for me personally, it’s one of the better movies that Cage has starred in. It’s action-packed and the plot is engrossing. But what I like most about this movie is that it doesn’t romanticize the Mafias.
It shows the Mafias as the violent criminal gang that they really are and once you cross them, you will receive the brunt of their fury. There’s also a subtle message that this movie may have wanted to send and that is crime doesn’t pay.
