Friday, November 16, 2012

Movie Review: Not taken by ‘Taken 2’


By Petey Brown
A&E Section Editor

Yet again Brian Mills (Liam Neeson) and his family are in another situation overseas where someone has been taken in the hit movie Taken’s sequel, Taken 2.

Mills is a retired CIA operative who is working security in Istanbul.  He invites his ex-wife and daughter to come visit him after he finishes his job.  Mills ex-wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen) is upset because she is going through a divorce with her husband and accepts Mills’ offer to visit.  Lenore and her daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) come to Istanbul for a nice visit. But that is not in store for them.

Albanian human traffickers are targeting the Mills family. They are seeking revenge for the family members that Mills killed to save his daughter in Taken. The Albanian traffickers manage to capture Leonor and Brian, but not Kim.  Brian manages to warn Kim to watch out for the takers, and she evades them. 

In this movie, it is now Kim trying to rescue her father.  Kim does not go to the United States Embassy. Instead, she tries to help her father herself.

Taken was awesome, but its sequel is a bit disappointing.  The movie did not seem as realistic as the first. It was just plain silly at times.  At one point in the movie, Kim throws grenades to try finding her father.  She does not get arrested doing this either.  It was as if Director Oliver Megaton was trying too hard to one up his last film and it did not end well. 

Many critics were not fans of this movie. RottenTomatoes.com, a website that compiles movie reviews together to make a rating for the movie, gave Taken 2 a 21 percent.  However, viewers gave this movie a 57 percent, which is not bad at all. 

The movie was not awful. Liam Neeson he did a good job in this movie. The plot was too much like a generic action movie.  This movie is a good mindless action flick. If you liked the first movie, then go see it.  Taken 2 had a lot of good things from Taken. It just did not do anything special.   

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