Liam Neeson Is Back In Taken 2

Liam Neeson is back in Taken sequel, Taken 2

Is it just more of the same from Liam Neeson in Taken 2 ?

These days it seems that whatever situation Liam Neeson, or rather the character he’s playing, gets himself into, you can be pretty sure that he’s going to find a way out of it.

Not only that, but he's going to save his family and friends as well. And somehow he manages to make you feel safe too.

 Taken 2 Trailer  

Taken 2 is more of the same in this regard. Taken came out in 2008 and was a surprise hit, hence this sequel.  

Taken 2 opens by showing funerals for the numerous victims of Liam Neeson’s character in the first film.

At first you think, what are the chances of all that happening again? But then you get a sense of safe familiarity when everything kicks off.

Indeed the plot of Taken 2 is little different from the original. It’s pretty much the same movie, but with a change of location and an alternative person being “taken”.

Taken 2 sees Neeson's Bryan Mills character, the obsessive-compulsive ex-CIA operative in Istanbul, where he’s the one being kidnapped along with his ex-wife Lenore, played by Famke Janssen.

Whilst in the first movie it was Mills' daughter Kim, played by Maggie Grace who was kidnapped to be used in a prostitution ring, in Taken 2 the bad guys are looking for revenge.

The Albanian human traffickers who grabbed Kim in the first Taken want payback for Mills’ mass-slaughter of their family members.

 The extended family is lead is its patriarch who is portrayed by the Croatian actor, Rade Šerbedžija who displays a casual blood-lust.

The first time we see him, he looks like a sleepy old granddad, reclining in his seat at a wrecked apartment building waiting for a call to say the former married couple have been abducted.

You almost feel sympathy for him as he struggle to come to grips with the realization that he’ll never be able to see his son again.

He has a number of seemingly inept family members working for him. Indeed Mills has no problem tracking them down thanks to their barking dog.



The film’s script contains plenty of slightly-illogical, but still tense touches to compensate for the more ridiculous elements.

These include a hooded Mills being driven to the secret base of his kidnappers counting to himself to keep track of the time taken, speed and direction of their journey, getting more clues from sounds coming from outside.

Another example is the ease with which his daughter is able to acquire a selection of hand grenades at short notice.

The father-daughter relationship portrayed by Neeson and Grace can get pretty funny before the action kicks off as he gets overprotective when she starts seeing a new boyfriend.

 Mind you, it’s understandable after what happened in the first film. Famke Janssen’s part in Taken 2 unfortunately mostly involves lying unconscious, or slowly waking up.

A subplot in which Kim tries to get her parents back together fades away and comes to nothing.

Taken 2 is all about Liam Neeson and his transformation into a somewhat aged action star anyway. He certainly doesn’t waste any time, just doing what needs to be done in a movie lasting only ninety minutes. You know what you’re getting with Liam Neeson these days.

Taken 2 is out now. Another film which looks promising which is still a few months away is RoboCop.