Taken 2 DVD
Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Rade Sherbedgia
Director: Olivier Megaton
Rating: 3/5
I was a big fan of Taken when it was released back in Taken and it was a movie that was all nicely tied up.
Quite why they felt the need to make a sequel is anyone's guess but Liam Neeson is back as Brian Mills.
Only if they were making a better movie that the first should they have ever made a sequel - sadly this is not a patch on its predecessor.
Bryan Mills, the retired CIA agent with a 'particular set of skills', stopped at nothing to save his daughter Kim from kidnappers in Taken.
When the father of one of the villains Bryan killed swears revenge, and takes his wife hostage in Istanbul, Bryan uses the same advanced level of special forces tactics to get his family to safety and systematically take out the kidnappers one by one.
Taken is a movie that you can just sit back and enjoy but if you are a fan of the first this will leave you somewhat disappointed.
It is almost as if they have taken everything that made the first film great and tossed it to one side leaving a paper thin story that, at times, is totally ridiculous.
Neeson is great once again as he more than proves his action man credentials - it is great to see these kind of roles not just being left for the younger actors in Hollywood.
What this movie really lacks is suspense and drive, it is what the first movie had in droves and what made it so successful.
There is an inevitability to how the story will end and it is a shame because this had the potential to be a great franchise.
But the larger part for Maggie Grace was one of the most ridiculous elements of the movie - running across the rooftops of Istanbul tossing grenades everywhere was just a tad over the top for me.
However there are some great action sequences - the car chase is particularly good - and it is these moments that are the saving grace of this film,
Taken 2 is a film that really should have been left of the drawing board and if you loved Taken maybe you should give this a miss.
Taken 2 is out on DVD and Blu-Ray now
Click here to buy Taken 2 on DVD
Click here to buy Taken 2 on Blu-Ray
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Liam Neeson