Taken 2

Rating: 6/10 (13 February 2013)

The first film was a surprise box office hit, and established the lead actor as an up and coming action movie star, so loads of fans must have been excited when a sequel was announced, I was certainly looking forward to another one, directed by Olivier Megaton (Transporter 3, Colombiana). Basically the film opens with a funeral attended by Albanian mobsters mourning for the deaths of cousins of criminals killed by Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) when searching for his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace), and back in Tropojë, Albania the employer of the men and father of dead criminal Marko, Murad Krasniqi (Batman Begins' Rade Serbedzija), states he will find Bryan and no matter what the cost will avenge the criminal deaths. Kim's mother Lenore (Famke Janssen) is having relationship problems with her husband, and they surprise Bryan who is taking a vacation in Istanbul, Turkey following an assignment for the CIA, and the daughter lets her parents go out while she stays in the hotel to go swimming in the pool. They are unaware that they are being followed by Murad's men, but Bryan suspects this when he notices a car behind them trailing, and after trying to get away they catch Lenore while the men force him to surrender. Before giving himself he calls Kim to warn him that her mother and he will be taken, and he warns her that she will be next, so he instructs her to hide, she is near being caught, but she manages to escape, and then the phone cuts when he is captured. Bryan wakes up with his hands tied to a pole, but he manages to use a secret communication device, he urges her to go to the U.S Embassy to tell the situation, but she begs him for a chance to help them having grown up and knowing the situation they are in, so he guides her how to help them. She opens his case of weaponry, taking some grenades and a gun, throwing a live grenade out the window he calculates from the sound of the explosion how far away she is from the stronghold as she looks on a map marking it down, and he promises to call her back while she travels to the marked spot. After Murad comes in the room for a quick vicious encounter, Kim has reached the spot on the map and gone to the rooftops, Bryan manages to break his restraints and instructs her to throw another couple of grenades to determine the building location, and she finds it via the steam chimney, and she throws his gun down the chute for him to shoot the thugs and escape. He and Kim get away from the criminals, who are behind them shooting, but they return to try and save Lenore, but she has already been moved, and chased away again the criminals following are killed, and they crash into the U.S. Embassy, and he calls his friend to stop the guards from shooting them. With Kim safe Bryan goes to the new compound, having memorised sounds and locations while being taken with her, and he shoots the various thugs in his path to reach Murad, he insists that if he is killed his sons and other gang members will be after him. Murad does agree to let him and his family go and never be bothered again, but of course he is lying and grabs the gun dropped, only to see that Bryan has removed the bullets, and knowing he wouldn't really agree to a truce he pushes the criminal to the wall into a blunt pipe to die, and he can save Lenore. Three weeks later the Mills family are all safe and sound and eating ice cream in a café to celebrate Kim passing her perfect driving test, they are joined also by her boyfriend Jamie (Luke Grimes), she jokes to her father Bryan not to shoot or restrain him, and they settle. Also starring Leland Orser as Sam, Jon Gries as Casey and Dinosaur's D.B. Sweeney as Bernie. Neeson still proves himself as the determined and skilled secret agent father who will do anything to keep his family safe and stop the bad guys, I agree the film is a little similar in some of its content, but when the film has just as much good violence, deadly ways to kill the villains and good pace it doesn't matter, a fun action drama. Good!