Taken 2

Rating: 7/10 (23 November 2014)

How can the same sh*t happen to the same guy twice? get a new line of work maybe. Neeson is back and he's badder than before, well not really but he still kicks ass at his ripe old age and he hasn't forgotten his black leather coat either.
Follow up to the very good original and your first thoughts are is this really needed? The first film was a kind of slick 'Ronin' kick ass machine but can you really do the same again without it being a rehash? well yes and no.
Its a nice idea that we see the aftermath of what the hero did in the last film. He kills all the bad guys and saves the day, but what about those baddie henchmen he bagged? what about their families and friends? no one really wonders how they would feel and its not been explored too much. So this plot about one particular bad guys family (father) wanting revenge on Neeson's character is kinda neat but also kinda stretched. If you think about it the concept could just go on and on, every bad guy killed having one of their family members coming after the hero for revenge.
There are quite a few silly moments in this film I must admit. For a start Neeson's character works out where he is pretty quickly after he's been kidnapped. So before you know it he's contacted his daughter with his trusty batphone thingy hidden in his sock (of course) and well on the way to be rescued, job done, film over then.
The sequence where he instructs his daughter to throw grenades left right n centre so he can listen for the explosion and calculate where he is, is also rather daft. Surely live grenades going off in downtown Istanbul might raise some alerts? wouldn't anyone hear this? if Mills can hear it in his dank prison surely other folk at street level can hear it no?
That also leads to the fact that when Mills is kidnapped it appears that he and his wife are driven quite a long distance away, possibly out of the city. We then learn through the grenade throwing sequence that he is in fact not very far away a tall, almost around the corner actually. His daughter can virtually see where he's been taken from the rooftop for gods sake!
Then there is the car chase which again is very 'Ronin' like in style and visuals. Now this chase is actually very good and very well done, I enjoyed it a lot, kudos. Thing is, Mills daughter can't drive, we know this from earlier in the film. Americans tend to drive automatic cars, the Merc they both escape in is a manual, but somehow this doesn't stop Mills daughter managing to drive this Euro manual like a rally driver through the narrow bustling streets of Istanbul.
Oh and Mills manages to find his wife pretty quickly and easily towards the end too, just a stroll in the park, blip! your dead. Unfortunately we also discover that the main bad guy Murad has two sons who will come after Mills if he is killed, so I guess that's 'Taken 3' then.
Despite all the silly bits and the fact the whole plot is weak and not really important, I did actually enjoy this film quite a bit. The visuals are glossy with good editing, sound and camera work, score does the trick nicely and of course the acting isn't too shabby either. I have read a lot of negative reviews for this film but I can't see why really. Sure its not as good or original as the first film but you get what you pay for.
Neeson bitch slapping balding unshaven Eastern European bad guys, a slamming car chase and all created with smooth eye popping French (yes French!) va va voom.
7/10