In an effort to improve my conversation skills, I've searched for a "universal ice breaker" - a topic so engaging it transcends barriers of age, class and gender.
After a few weeks of group conversations, I think I've found one.
"Taken" is a movie starring Liam Neeson, who plays a retired CIA-operative who scours Paris looking for his kidnapped daughter. In the process, he kills just about everyone in the city.
When my friend brought the "Taken" DVD to a group movie night, I was skeptical. The film went unnoticed when it hit the theaters earlier this year: it was released in the no-confidence month of January, and most critics dismissed it as "too violent" and "without story."
But my god, the critics were wrong. By the end of the night, you'd think it was an opening night screening of "Lord of the Rings" - lots of cheering, jumping and high-fives. Even the girls couldn't help getting into it.
"Liam just looked at that guy," someone would observe. "That guy's so dead!"
Nine times out of 10, we would be right. Seconds later, Liam Neeson would exit the frame, leaving a half dozen unconscious Parisians. What I love most are the random people I've met as a result of this movie. Mention "Taken" in a group setting, and you'll probably turn a few heads.
"Are you guys talking about 'Taken'? That movie was nuts. Remember the part when…"
And the fans aren't just the college guys who do shots during "24," worship Chuck Norris and rave about those "three-wolf-moon" T-shirts. Converts are everywhere.
At a party thrown by my parents, I quickly struck up a conversation with a 60-year-old retired Navy admiral about the film. He told me about a real-life "Taken" situation in which he had to use his connections in the CIA and the FBI to track down his friend's daughter, who was lost in Turkey.
I dropped the title again during a quiet lunch with some fellow interns from work. Immediately, a bouncy, "you-mean-we-can-leave-the-sorority-house?" girl perked up on the other side of the table and started raving about it.
"Taken" has united the interests of grizzled military retirees and chirpy college girls. Obama couldn't even do that. So see "Taken." Rent it, buy it, download - whatever's quickest. If you don't, Liam Neeson will throw you off a building.
