Most people love it and a few hate it and both sides have valid reasons. Viewed purely as an action movie it does what it says on the tin! If you want to start analysing it as if it was an art house film then, of course, you can find fault because clichés do abound. First off there's the air-headed 17 year old daughter, Kim, doted on by the ex-CIA specialist killing machine played efficiently by Neeson, who's been cast aside by the blinkered, indulgent mother, played by Janssen, for the safer and much richer second husband, Xander Berkeley. Next, Kim decides she wants to do the groupie thing with her equally air-headed mate and troll around Europe after a rock group. Naturally, doting father, who knows the ways of the world, fiercely objects but dumb mum sees no problem with this - after all, you're only young once!
The girls reach Paris safely, the first stop on their tour, but fall foul of the most horrible of scams. Enter the East European nasties! This is the bit, of course, that plays in to the most profound of our prejudices about the yellow peril, going back to such pernicious heavies as Dracula himself; the peril from the east! This time, though, it's not Transylvania getting the bad press but the Albanian mafia, trafficking young white women for prostitution, and Kim and her mate fit the bill nicely. Dad duly brushes the dust from his skill set and proceeds to track down the kidnappers killing, with apparent impunity, anything and everything in his way.
So what's the problem? The action is handled brilliantly and, whilst the inevitable fight scenes do stretch the boundaries of probability, the baddies well and truly get their just deserts. Just think about this: if your daughter was snatched and sold into slavery to be the sex toy for some rich sheik and you were a CIA trained killing machine with powerful financial resources available to you would you let anything stand in your way to rescue her? Of course not! So the premise is fine: the baddies have to come from somewhere so why not let Albania have its turn; there have been plenty of nasty Brits - think, Die hard? And as for the many improbabilities - it's fiction for crying out loud: albeit fiction, which has, unfortunately, echoes of the sometimes, very, very unpleasant real world. Perhaps some people need reminding of this.