Taken 2
Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Rade Sherbedgia
Director: Olivier Megaton
Rating: 3/5
Now I have to admit that when I heard that there was going to be a Taken 2 I was a little surprised as Taken was all wrapped up in a nice little bow come the closing credits.
But when a movie does unexpectedly well I suppose it shouldn't come as any real surprise that studios want to flog it for all it is worth .
I am not disappointed to see Liam Neeson back kicking some ass as Bryan Mills but I did wonder if it would come close to matching the original... and unfortunately it has come up a little short.
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 sadly it is not a patch on the first film.
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,
This is not the worse film that you will see all year by a long way but big fans of the original will be hugely disappointed this time around.
Taken 2 is out now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Liam Neeson