Taken 2

I'm a big Luc Besson fan and loved the first Taken.  It took me completely by surprise as I had expected probably just another action movie but it had a whole lot more.  Well maybe not more but just did what it set out to do VERY WELL.  I think it was just fun to watch the good guy kick so much bad guy ass. 

Liam Neeson plays the ex CIA, special ops or whatever he was perfectly and the movie just blasts along at an incredibly fast and exciting pace.

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."

*shivers*

At that point I was hooked.   But anyway this isn't a review of the first Taken.

Unfortunately I don't see an end to the making of unnecessary sequels.  They usually make money because even though we are skeptical we normally have to check it out in that faint glimmer of hope it's actually decent like your Aliens, Terminator 2's etc.  Time after time we get disappointed but that hope always drives us to try again.

Taken 2 is an unnecessary sequel.   Basically the same story set in a new location (Instanbul) with the same baddies and the same family.  Liam Neeson and Maggie Grace gave fairly solid performances again but the wife Famke whatsherface (mainly known by me for House on Haunted Hill and Golden Eye) looked like she had better places to be.  

Anyway, $10 you can guess what happens in this one?  No point going into it, watch the first one and save yourself the trouble.

That said it's not a terrible movie.  It was entertaining enough for me not to switch off either my brain or the telly.   But it just brought nothing new to the table, except maybe showing us how easy it is to throw grenades randomly off buildings.  Man that looked like fun.

In a couple of years time when I go to watch the first Taken again, I'll be purposely forgetting about this sequel and enjoy it as the standalone movie it should have been.   By then Taken 3 will be out and I'll have something else to complain about.

 5/10

IMDB Info