Taken 2

A great story but horrible directing
"Taken" was, to me, the movie that threw Liam Neeson into the "action star" category. I know he was a Jedi knight at one point, but that was the movie that made it real. The story was compelling, the action amazing, and the entire thing was a thrill ride. While the story this time out is very unique (the relatives of some of the men he killed in the first film are out for revenge) and I loved where it came from, the execution of the whole thing faltered horribly.

While "Taken 2" will not let you lose faith in Liam Neeson's ability to kill a man creatively with his bare hands, the director this time out seems to take it as a personal challenge to change camera angles as many times as humanly possible during any action sequence. As a result, any time Liam is talking to someone, it's all calm and steady. The instant he moves toward a person to attack, the director takes the movie into an angle frenzy that lets you know there's a lot of action going on, but you'll never know...

Revenge for Taken 1
I very much enjoyed this movie. Maybe Taken 1 was a little better but Taken 2 was still great! (And, I will buy the DVD when it comes out.) There is just something real special about watching Liam Neeson go after these brutal, murdering creeps.

This time the film begins in Albania, where the bodies are being unloaded from the airplane -- the bodies of the bad guys that Neeson killed in Taken 1. As they are being buried, the grieving family surrounding the dead, the head guy and father of one or more of them, vows revenge against Neeson. (I mean, forget the fact that THEY started the whole thing by stealing his daughter.)

The scene shifts to Los Angeles, California, where Neeson's former wife is in the midst of a divorce from her second husband and the daughter is dating. Neeson is leaving for a couple of days of work in Instanbul and invites them to join him when the job is finished. As you probably guessed, all the excitement begins on foreign soil, as the...

Painfully awful movie...
Loved Taken 1, so I gambled on this. Unfortunately, this was basically a rehash of the original. Taken 2 probably should have gone straight to video as one of those Walmart $9.99 blu ray specials. I guess if nobody watched part 1, then they'd be reasonably entertained by Liam's tough guy character. Best part was watching the car chase scenes where the idiot daughter (who didn't even have a license yet) was outrunning the equally idiotic goons. After the 4th dub of Liam saying "faster faster", I promised myself to never, ever, ever, ever, ever take a gamble on a sequel...

In summary, I didn't like this movie. Your experience may differ...

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