Writer and producer Luc Besson has said that the latest Liam
Neeson abduction opus “Taken 2” (*** out of ****) won’t spawn a sequel. Nevertheless, the prolific Parisian filmmaker
might whistle a different tune after he scrutinizes the box office that this
handy, white-knuckled thriller has drummed up.
Since it debuted Friday, October 5th, “Taken 2” has taken twice as much
as its exciting predecessor coined on its own opening day. Despite Besson’s assurances to the contrary,
co-scripter Robert Mark Kamen and he have left “Taken 2” wide open for another
sequel. Meantime, little has changed
since 2009 when director Pierre Morel’s “Taken” pitted retired CIA operative
Bryan Mills against an Albanian-run white slavery ring operating out of Paris. This time out, Besson and Kamen have doubled
the derring-do. Not only do the villains
want to nab the daughter again, but they also want the father as well as his
estranged wife. Director Olivier
Megaton, who helmed “Transporter 3” and “Columbiana,” doesn’t let anything
stand in the way of Neeson as he shoots, stabs, and slugs his way through even
more Albanians in this formulaic shoot’em up that never squanders a second of
its pared down 91-minute running time.
Although it isn't as suspenseful as the original “Taken,” “Taken 2”
serves up more than enough outlandish action with some very obnoxious villains,
including distinguished Croatian actor Rade Serbedzija, who take liberties with
Neeson’s co-star Famke Janssen. Chief among the assets of this sequel are its
atmospheric Istanbul locations, particularly the Suleymaniye Mosque, the Grand
Bazaar and the Bosphorus. Maggie Grace
sprints across some impressive Turkish architecture with villains nipping at
her heels while our hero plunges into some claustrophobic settings in search of
his ex-wife.
“Taken 2” opens as the coffins containing the corpses of the
white slavers that Bryan Mills mowed down in "Taken" are taken back
to Albania for burial. During the
funeral, Murad Krasniqi (Rade Serbedzija of “Batman Begins”) vows to wreak
vengeance on Mills for slaying his good-for-nothing son as well as the sons of
his dastardly relatives. As it turns
out, Bryan (Liam Nesson of “The A-Team”) has just completed a security job in
Istanbul when his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen of “GoldenEye”) and his daughter
Kim (Maggie Grace of “Lockout”) surprise him with their presence. Although Lenore and Bryan are divorced, this
doesn’t keep Kim from playing Cupid when she sends them off together for their
own sight-seeing tour of Istanbul. The
fiendish villains aren’t far behind.
They strike at the motel where Kim is splashing about in a swimming
pool. Surprisingly, they fail to nab Kim
because her fleet-footed, fast-thinking father is a couple of steps ahead of
them. Bryan alerts his daughter and
tries to pack Lenore out of harm's way, too.
Of course, complications arise.
Murad’s well-armed minions capture both Bryan and Lenore and hide them
in the bazaar. Since he knows a thing or
two about handling hard cases, Bryan isn’t on ice long before he retaliates and
takes down one Albanian after another with extreme prejudice. Predictably,
Bryan saves the day, but not before the villains slash Lenore and suspend her
upside down so that gravity is about to drain her of life, love, and the
pursuit of happiness in a mere 30 minutes.
None of this will do, and Bryan figures a way out of his predicament,
but he cannot rescue his ex-wife as quickly as he would prefer. The villains haul Lenore off again, and our
hero has to second guess them using what he saw and heard during their initial
abduction to track them down.
Mind you, most of the repugnant villains behave like
ten-pins in a bowling alley that our hero knocks down with absurd ease. What sets “Taken 2” apart from the
conventional kidnap caper is Bryan’s method of locating himself and his
wife. After she escapes from her
would-be abductors, Kim scrambles across rooftops slinging grenades so her
father can triangulate his location for her and bring her to his rescue. She delivers an automatic pistol to him, and
he starts slinging lead with no end in sight.
When director Olivier Megaton isn’t showing things from the perspective
of the father, he stages several snap, crackle, pop action scenes that will
make you squirm and wince. Make no
mistake, “Taken 2” could have been twice as bloody as an R-rated thriller, but
PG-13 nail-biters pull in bigger audiences.
“Taken 2” will have you begging for a third!
