Warner Bros’ and producer Michael Bay’s remake of the influential 1980 horror film Friday the 13th significantly outperformed expectations by setting a new opening weekend box office record for a horror movie, taking in more than $42 million to finish first among U.S. audiences this past weekend.

But the best news was the continuing strength of Taken, the action thriller starring Liam Neeson, written and produced by Luc Besson, and directed by Pierre Morel.

Despite its R rating, FTT beat the 2004 film The Grudge, which took in $39 million with a less restrictive PG rating. The number of tickets sold may tell a different story, since ticket prices are now higher than they were five years ago. Still, the performance is impressive and shows that people still enjoy the slasher genre, even on Valentine’s Day, when one would expect romantic relationship films to draw bigger audiences.

One such movie, He’s Just Not That Into You, did reasonably well, finishing second with a U.S. take of $19.6 million in its second weekend.

Also still going strong was the excellent Liam Neeson-starring action thriller Taken, finishing third at $19.3 million. Taken is another success for French writer-director-producer Luc Besson, the mind behind other hits such as Nikita (U.S. title: Le Femme Nikita), Leon (U.S. title: The Professional), The Fifth Element, Taxi, Unleashed (writer-producer only), and The Transporter films (writer-producer only).

Besson’s films tend to have a good deal of action while presenting distinctive characters in difficult situations and showing realistic emotional responses. Besson’s films, while not often particularly credible in plot terms, tend to stand for decent values and indicate a benevolent attitude toward humanity in general.

While unapologetic about the need for good people to take action against evil—reflecting the observation attributed to the great classical liberal Edmund Burke, that all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing—Besson’s films are unflinching in acknowledging the moral ambiguities involved in fighting against wrongdoers.

Thus Besson’s point of view as seen in his films is similar to that of American action filmmakers in general. In reflecting an awareness of mankind’s capacity for both good and evil and the need for good people to fight hard to make things right, Besson’s films exemplify a classical liberal view of life.

—S. T. Karnick