Taken 2 (***)

Directed by: Olivier Megaton

Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Rade Šerbedžija

Seen: October 12^th 2012

*** Out of ****

Taken was a surprise hit in 2008 and Taken 2, while a little contrived, is nothing different. It will speak to those who enjoyed the original movie in giving them more of exactly what Taken became a hit for – revenge violence unleashed upon a bunch of vile villains who really seem to deserve it. Taken had viewers cheering Bryan Mills (Neeson), the CIA operative who goes after the men who kidnapped his daughter in brutal fashion, and Taken 2 is the box-office chasing, but still relatively satisfying, expansion on that.

Bryan Mills brutally eliminated almost an entire crime ring/family in the first movie, and Taken 2 starts with the funeral of these human trafficking monsters, and with their leader (and father of Taken’s electrocuted man) Murad (Šerbedžija) vowing revenge. They torture and bribe to get information on Bryan’s location, which, luckily for them, is less than 1000km (about 620 miles) away. Bryan, his daughter Kim (Grace), and her mother Lenore (Janssen) are on holiday in Istanbul. When Bryan and Lenore, looking like they are on the way to reconciliation, go out into the city, Kim stays behind at the hotel. Murad’s men come for Bryan and they capture Lenore, forcing Bryan to give himself up. Before Bryan gives does so however, he calls Kim and informs her of events, telling her they are being taken (luckily leaving out the 2 here), and giving her some instructions to both not be taken herself, and to assist them. Thus the scene is yet again set for Bryan to start raining down mayhem on some very deserving thugs in order to liberate his family.

Like Taken, Taken 2 features some brutal close distance fighting and some brutal dispatching of bad guys. It is toned down a bit from what was seen in Taken though, with torture of the bad guys taking a back seat and some slick investigative work taking over. The sequence in the movie from their being Taken up to Kim finding them is the best part of the movie, as what follows after that is really a descent into violence and murder, and a repeat/remake of events from the first move – which isn’t to say it’s bad. The search sequence however is very well presented and with a few little pieces of luck, it plays out really well with good tension building.

Liam Neeson is the great actor who dons the action hero’s cape and it comes across very successfully. Maggie Grace has a little more to do this time round, and she pulls it off with the right amounts of desperation and trepidation. Rade Šerbedžija always entertains me, as even in a more serious role like this I always think back to his Boris the Blade in the movie Snatch, which was brilliantly comical.

Taken 2, while not as high octane and brutal as Taken, still delivers and is still exciting and tense. If you enjoyed Taken go see this, but also know that it isn’t Taken, few movies will be.