Taken 2

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with a funeral taking place in the small village of Tropoje, Albania. The funeral is attended by the Albanian mafia where several armed men stand over the graves of their fallen brothers. Their leader, Murad Krasniqi (Rade Serbedzija), tells them that they will have their revenge, and they will kill Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson).The next scene takes place in Los Angeles where Bryan appears to be working at a car wash, but just wants to buff the car himself. He goes to the home of his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) to see their daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). Lenore tells Bryan she is with her boyfriend. Bryan is clearly not thrilled to hear that. He drives over to the boyfriend's house using a GPS he furtively put in Kim's phone. He interrupts their make-out session and has Kim leave so she can continue practicing driving (she is now 18 years old and failed her road test twice already). Kim is not happy that Bryan is still overprotective of her even after three years (since the events of the first film when she was kidnapped by Albanian human traffickers).In Paris, France, the Albanians break into the home of Bryan's friend Jean-Claude and torture him for information on Bryan's whereabouts, but Jean-Claude has no idea. The villains will later discover that Bryan is headed to Istanbul, Turkey, on personal business.The next day, Bryan goes to visit Lenore, only to find her crying because she has been fighting with Stuart, her husband, and as a result, he canceled their planned trip to China. Bryan suggests that she and Kim join him in Istanbul, but Lenore says she doesn't want to impose.Meanwhile, the Albanians arrive in Istanbul via a mountain pass as they await Bryan's arrival. When he gets there, he stops at his hotel and makes a phone call to Lenore. He starts to leave a message, only to be surprised by her and Kim.In his room, Bryan pulls out a trunk full of weapons. Kim and Lenore are staying in the next room. At night, Bryan and Kim take a ride on a boat on the Bostrophes, and Bryan not-so-subtly asks about her boyfriend Jamie (Luke Grimes). He asks if she loves him, but she doesn't know yet. She mentions how Lenore described her relationship with Bryan before having Kim as being "magical."The next day, Bryan and Lenore allow Kim to go off and have fun while they take a ride through the area from a local taxi driver. However, during the ride, Bryan senses danger. He tells the driver to go a certain route and begins telling Lenore to go back to his hotel room to be safe. She gets out of the car and runs away while Bryan takes the car from the driver. He tries calling Kim, but she is swimming in the hotel pool and doesn't hear her phone. Lenore gets trapped and can't make it out. A few Albanian thugs corner Bryan and he immediately begins to beat them up. However, one of them brings Lenore captured. He orders Bryan to drop his gun. He then calls Kim back and informs her that he and her mother are about to be taken. She is scared, but he tells her where to go to be safe because he knows they'll look for her too. After he hangs up, he breaks the phone and they brutally assault him, and then capture him and Lenore.Kim leaves the pool and heads to her room, then walks out the window to the next room where she hides in Bryan's closet before the other thugs come in to find her. Security guards notice them, but the thugs kill them.At the villain's hideout, Bryan is by his wrists using a zip tie to a pipe. While he is alone, he takes out another hidden cellular phone and tries to call his friend Sam (Leland Orser) but gets no answer. He tries Kim again, and she tells him that she's safe. After she gets out of the closet, Bryan tells her to get a grenade and toss it out the window onto a parking garage and to let him hear the explosion so he knows how close she is and where she can find him. He is forced to hang up and hide the device as Murad comes in. Murad shows him pictures of the last film's villains, all of whom died at Bryan's hands. Murad pulls out a picture of Mirko, his son (the one Bryan killed by sticking him with the nails hooked to battery cables, electrocuting him until his heart burst). Bryan says he did what he did because they kidnapped his daughter, but Murad doesn't care. He still intends on making Bryan suffer. He brings in Lenore and cuts her neck, then hangs her upside down with a bag over her head to see how long it takes until the blood in her head is gone. He tells Bryan that once they capture Kim, Murad will sell her the the lowest brothel where she will be used by many men and become nothing but a piece of meat.Bryan manages to free himself and get Lenore down. He calls Kim again and continues telling her where to go by throwing more grenades. He senses she is close and keeps telling her where to go. He breaks a steam pipe and sends steam up a chimney, which he tells Kim to zero in on. Kim drops a gun down the chimney. He escapes from the hideout and starts killing more Albanians in a shootout. Meanwhile, Kim is roof-hopping and is eventually cornered by one thug, who gets shot by Bryan who has escaped. He embraces a terrified Kim and takes her away.They steal a taxicab as Bryan tries to get Lenore back in less than five minutes, which he monitors by setting a timer on Kim's phone. He is too late, and the villains take Lenore away. He gets back to Kim, who is forced to drive the cab through the city away from the villains who give chase in their own cars. Bryan tells her to drive to the American Embassy, and they eventually outrun the villains and crash through a booth after getting shot at. Bryan manages to call Sam again and asks him to contact anyone who can protect them. He tells Kim that the villains are hunting him, and she will be safe in the embassy. He promises he will find her mother.Bryan eventually finds where Murad and his goons have taken Lenore. He storms the complex and continues killing off the bad guys, even getting into a prolonged fistfight with one goon who almost stabs Bryan, but he takes him out quickly and grabs his gun. He finally corners Murad in a small room with the gun. Bryan asks him if he has other sons. Murad says he has two. Bryan knows if he kills Murad, they will seek revenge as well, so he opts to spare Murad's life because he is just tired of all the killing. He sets the gun down and starts to walk out. However, Murad grabs the gun and pulls the trigger as Bryan's back is turned, only to discover the gun is empty. Bryan hands him the bullet he took out, and then shoves Murad´s head into an coat hanger, killing him. He goes over to Lenore, who is lying on the floor unconscious, but she comes to, and they embrace.Three weeks later. Kim is taking her road test, and she passes. Bryan hugs her, and she invites him for a celebration. She takes him and Lenore to an ice cream parlor. The waitress brings four sundaes and in enters Kim's boyfriend Jamie. She asks Bryan if it's okay, and he appears not to be okay with it, but he lightens up and welcomes him to join them.

Tags: revenge, murder, violence, flashback

Review:
In "Taken 2," it's not as complicated and the stakes don't feel nearly as high.Simply, the Albanians that Mills killed en route to finding his daughter want revenge, so they track him to one of his private security jobs in Istanbul.
As it happens, Kim and her mother, Lenore (Famke Janssen), decide to surprise him by flying to meet him there, though to be fair it's not that obnoxious of a coincidence, as Mills had invited them to come after hearing Lenore's current husband had canceled their family trip to China.During their first full day together in Istanbul, Kim gets the idea to let Bryan and Lenore have some alone time in hopes of rekindling their relationship, but when they go into town they are followed by the Albanians, and despite Mills' best efforts, he and Lenore are taken.The entire setup here is forced — really forced.
It feels as though every single plot point or detail exists solely to create circumstances in which our main characters can get kidnapped, with ample occurrences both inconvenient and convenient to allow for problems and general suspense while also providing enough room for a solution.We already know what Mills is willing to do for his family, so his motivation is identical to the first film, plus we know he's too skilled to stay kidnapped for long.
What's required to compensate for not raising the stakes in terms of both motivation and danger is substantially more creativity, and that's where Besson and Kamen really come up dry.There's one scene early on (as in once the film gets going early on) in which Mills uses Kim to help pinpoint his location in the city, instructing her to set off grenades so he can figure out how far away she is by how long it takes for him to hear the blast.
What you will be treated to however is a cheap, watered down child friendly, completely unrealistic, trashy, knock off 'Rom Com with bullets' B reel, sold purely on the title of "Taken" alone.Huge plot holes dominate the script from start to finish, in its purest form its basically an awful rehash of the first film but 1000 times worse, placing Maggie Grace (Bryan Mills daughter) as the heroine trying to rescue her parents from a load of bungling Albanians (yes they are literally that bad, think of Manuel from Faulty Towers and you have your starting point) .
Now look, I am going to say from the start, I like Liam Neeson, a good solid actor, even if lately his roles seem to be that of the brooding loner, perhaps very understandable considering recent personal circumstances and its a role he plays very well, so no problem with that.
The action relocated to Istanbul could have been potentially very interesting and the basic story, as shown in the trailers, so no spoilers here, is that the family of the men he killed in the first film want their revenge.
It had a very similar tone to what was great about the original Bourne Trilogy.It is everything a fan of the first film would wish for - the speeches, the action, the humour and the brutal efficiency of Liam Neeson's 'Brian Mills'.Enjoyed this very much - a definite for fans of the first film and a must see for anyone else..
Istanbul provides some good locations, both intriguing scenery and gloomy scenery which can also help in taking the movie seriously.Sure, it has it's flaws, and the camera-work is sometimes choppy, but the point is, if you thoroughly enjoyed the first Taken, you should see this one too..
The way people judge movies sucks, and ill be quick and make it simple.Liam Neeson is still a bad ass and a great actor, the story still keeps your attention even if its not as real as the other story.
Retired CIA operative Mills (Liam Neeson) invites his teenage daughter Kim and his ex-wife Lenore, who has separated from her second husband, to spend a couple of days in Istanbul where he is working .
You love the new direction, the twists you could never have seen coming, the depth of the characters, their background, the world they're living in, a leading film in it's own right, something to make you want to watch the other one right away...Unfortunately this isn't one of those types.
What makes me love 'Taken 2' is the fact that it related to the first movie but the only difference was that Kim Mills played by (Maggie Grace) had to return the favour by saving her father from dangerous Albanian mobsters who hailed him and his wife hostage in a secret location.
Taken 2 (loved that they stuck with a simple title for the sequel instead of adding something lame after the two may not be as nearly as great as that film was, but it still is a lot of fun and has Liam Neeson doing what he does best.
I still loved this movie and had a lot of fun despite not being as good as the original.Former CIA agent, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), succeeded in bringing his daughter back after being kidnapped in Europe, leaving dozens of dead bodies behind.
The retired CIA agent Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) invites his teenage daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) and his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen), who has separated from her second husband, to spend a couple of days in Istanbul where he is working.Meanwhile, the patriarch of the community of the Albanese gang of human trafficking, Murad Krasniqi (Rade Sherbedgia), seeks revenge for the death of his son and organizes another gang to kidnap Bryan and his family.
Not irredeemably awful and there are worse sequels about (naming them would take up a whole review's worth), but 'Taken 2' was a real waste of reasonable potential, considering that it has the always watchable and often very good to great Liam Neeson as the main star.
Before anybody says anything, am not the sort of person who is always with the general consensus, have been known a fair few times to go against the tide and part of me wanted to do so watching this but the film was just too problematic to enjoy it more and take it for what it was.'Taken 2' is not without good points.
Markos and his gang according to Murad were just doing their job to make a dishonest living in kidnapping and pimping young girls and this crazed mad man US Government Agent Bryan Mills, Liam Neeson, put an end to their lives for doing it.Now sending out this scuzzy gang of assassins Murad plans to do to Millis as well as his wife Lenny, Frankie Janssen, and especially his 17 year old daughter Kim, Maggie Grace, the very worst he can think of.It's in Istanbul not Constantinople Turkey where Mills and his family are on vacation where all the actions in the movie takes place.
Even Mills who's captured and tortured by the group is never really in danger of being killed or murdered in just how gingerly and with extreme care they handle him as well as wife Lenny & daughter Kim. Mills for his part has no trouble dispatching the bad guys Steven Seagal style where they never are even allowed to lay a glove or hand on him in the many fights scenes he has with them in the movie.
BUT.....this movie really isn't very good, it's predictable, the acting is robotic and stiff, the action scenes are almost laughable, Liam Neeson moves like he's an old man with arthritis, the bad guys are so stupid that they don't deserve to live, and yet will all that said this is still kind of a fun movie to watch.
For those of you who also enjoyed the original TAKEN, let me now warn you, this is a hollow shell of a sequel, but as action movies go, this is not a total waste either, thus I rate it a 5 star out of a possible 10..
The answer is inferior direction, no surprises, and too many absurd moments to count.Liam Neeson returns as former CIA-stud Bryan Mills, father to Kim (Maggie Grace) whom he rescued from Albanian sex-traffickers in Paris.
Since the film opens with a mass funeral depicting the burial of all the guys Bryan killed in the first movie, and Rade Serbedzija vows revenge, it comes as little surprise when Bryan and Leonore are "taken".What is surprising is that the filmmakers attempt to turn Maggie Grace into an action hero.
Also, I want to know who was watching the first "Taken" and said, " Man, that was great, but I'd like to see more of his daughter in the action." Maggie Grace, who plays Liam Neeson's daughter Kim, is involved way too much in the story.
After watching the very badass Liam Neeson's new movie, Taken 2, which I was desperately looking forward to because the original was all sorts of fantastic, I have been enlightened in strange ways.
In the original, Taken, the daughter of a retired CIA agent, Bryan Mills (Neeson) is kidnapped by human traffickers and he has to use his "particular set of skills" to save her.
So it's important for villains to do daft things like not kill the good guy after they capture him because they want him to feel pain (*cough*, The Dark Knight Rises, *cough*).But here's the level of daftness of the bad guys in Taken 2.
I got what I wanted and then some.So this film not only offers the tension, the action, the hand-to-hand combat you have come to expect from this guy, it also offers a fantastic car chase with an unlikely driver, in a very nice location, at a great pace, with a fun outcome as well.Of course many of the moments of this movie are outrageous and ridiculous, like having somebody throw grenades around the city, with apparently nobody getting killed, even nobody notifying the police; gratuitous hand-to-hand combat in some very public places, with violent outcomes, and apparently the authorities are very incompetent.
Despite still being entertaining and filled with some clever scenes, Taken 2 never quite reaches the same level as its original.The reason the original Taken worked so well was that Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) was racing against the clock to find his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) in Paris after being kidnapped, giving him a reason to make quick decisions and pushing his boundaries with how far he'd go with violence and morality.
The thing that really makes Taken and Taken 2 work is the nightmare quality to the central character's story, like in a nightmare things keep going wrong and drawing him back into a paranoid state, as if he were being haunted by the obsession of his daughter or loved ones being kidnapped and unable to ever truly relax and live a normal life, that's why the film manages to be truly scary and suspenseful; because we feel what he feels..
Let's just say the result is seriously a lazy rehash with a capital "L".This time around, the story involves the head of the Albanian clan named Murad Krasniqi (Rade Sherbedgia), who vows to avenge Bryan Mills' (Liam Neeson) killing of his son, the head of a human trafficking syndicate who was previously responsible for kidnapping Mills' daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace) in the first movie.
Of course, the rest of the movie won't be focusing solely on Kim to save the day (which I actually thought the filmmakers are bold enough to toy with the formula inside out) but we eventually see Mills break free from capture and uses his same "special set of skills" to overcome the bad guys.The biggest problem about TAKEN 2 is the replacement of the original director Pierre Morel with Olivier Megaton (the man behind the awful TRANSPORTER 3 and the surprisingly entertaining COLOMBIANA).
Even the movie's car chase scene in the middle part feels generic.Liam Neeson remains a saving grace here, but that isn't really saying much.
While the first film director Pierre Morel (a keen cinematographer), provides a sharp and constant edgy look that makes the film such a success, Megaton lacks this crucial ability and in turn moves the camera so often that the audience is unable to focus on the action on display.All in all, "Taken 2" is one of those films that try too hard to follow the same premise, tricks and plot line as the original.
The best sequel to a movie i have said was to be one of my favourite really pulled off for taken 2.The story of the film is that one of the guys brian killed in the first instalment hunts him and everyone around him to get revenge.i thought that it was absolutely brilliant as it still had the action and drama the first had.
Taken 2 is a brilliant movie with a terrific storyline,action,thrills,suspense,cast and characters.Liam Neeson is back again as Bryan Mills,one of his finest roles too date.A lot of critics didn't have positive feedback from the trailers and thought they where making it look obvious that it was a sequel,but I don't think they did that at all,it trys to be its own movie and doesn't copy stuff from the original,something that sequels like Die Hard 2 and The Hangover Part 2 have failed to do.The movie keeps you on your seat from start to finish.Bryan goes on a vacation with Lenore and Kim to Isanbul.But the father of the men who took Bryans daughter several years ago that he killed is looking for revenge and kidnaps Bryan and Lenore,Bryan gets help from Kim to fix things..
Of course they would have to make a sequel to wring some more money out of Taken's fans.A review of a movie sequel which starts outs praising the first installment instead of the new story is most likely not going to be very kind to the unfortunate title which ends in the number 2.
Taken 2 keeps Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills, Famke Janssen as his ex-wife Lenore, and the always relentlessly annoying Maggie Grace as his daughter Kim. Rule of thumb - if Maggie Grace is cast in your film, it will probably stink.
We got free tickets to watch this flick when it released in India, given to us by Radio Indigo, and oh boy, we really loved it.The film is sequel to "Taken" and the story is about federal agent Bryan Mills who is targeted by the revengeful relatives of the people he kills in "Taken" while rescuing his daughter from them.
The rest of it is about how and if Bryan is able to tackle his enemies.The film is really fast paced, with cool stunts and car chases, and nail biting thrills from the start to end that will keep you at the edge of your seat.All I didn't like about it were some unnecessary scenes but that was negligible.Watch Taken 2.....you'll like it, as long as you don't keep trying to figure out EVERYTHING that is going on logically.
All i liked about this movie, is Bryan (Liam Neeson)'s instructions to his daughter to find their hideouts was lil bit OK..
Taken 2 is the sequel the highly successful Taken, and stars Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen who reprise their roles as Bryan, Kim and Lenore.
The first half of the film tries to build on the characters of Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), estranged wife Lenore (Famke Janssen), and daughter Kim (Maggie Grace).
Another thing which really bugged me was the colour grading; when Bryan was with his family it was nice and bright, but when we were with the villain (Rade Serbedgia), the film had this overly dark grey look to it which just said "HE'S A GOOD GUY AND HE'S A BAD GUY!!!"I wasn't expecting much from director Olivier Megaton, whose only other films, The Transporter 3 and Colombiana, both of which are pretty average.
I wanted to be hooked by Neeson's cold vengeance and wanted to be shouting and egging on Neeson to break some bad guy's neck, but left the cinema feeling pretty disappointed.The first thing I would like to critisise is the chemistry between the characters; I felt very little between Bryan (Liam Neeson) and his wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen), and child, Kim (Maggie Grace).
I wanted to watch Taken 2 to feel no sympathy for the bad guys but I felt the opposite!I also didn't like Bryan's style and method of killing in this film; cold, blunt kills.
Into the film and for reasons that don't deliver, Bryan (Liam Neeson), daughter Kim (Maggie Grace), and ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) who's facing a divorce from her current husband, are all in Istanbul to have a good time and unwind from the trauma of Kim's kidnapping.
Liam Neeson is bad-ass as in the first film and action sequences are good again (except the car chases).
Liam Neeson was his usual self as Bryan Mills, Maggie Grace was good as daughter Kim, as was Famke Janssen as wife Lenore.
The past action of the first movie was not met, the crew could have invested in some lighting equipment, it looked like some scenes were filmed by a 5 year old holding a camera, and frankly there were times where I was just left going "what just happened." With all that being said, Liam Neeson had a solid role in my opinion, but it was not enough for me to flop anymore than a generous 5 on this movie.
But if you are watching this for the story, you might find yourself cheated.As for the actors and actresses in the movie, well they all did good jobs with their roles, especially Liam Neeson, which wouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
I did not expect Taken 2 to be good as original Taken, but I thought at least I would be satisfied and enjoy my time watching the movie.