Cast: Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace, Rade Serbedzija

Direction: Olivier Megaton

Genre: Action Duration: 1 hour 35 minutes

Story:

Retired CIA operative Bryan Mills and his ex-wife get kidnapped while holidaying in Istanbul. His daughter manages to escape. Will she be able to ‘save’ the couple? Movie Review: This sequel of 2008 hit Taken follows up a while after where the first film left off. Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is finding it tough coming to terms with the fact that his daughter Kim is seeing a boy and may be serious about him.

The fact that she had been the recent victim of a kidnapping attempt foiled by her father is not lost on her. Father and daughter are still close and he wants nothing more than to ensure his family is safe.
So, when his ex-wife Lenore complains about a cancelled trip, he consoles her and asks them to join him after ‘work’ (an assignment where he provides security to rich, high-risk clients) in Istanbul.

Meanwhile, in faraway Albania, a village mourns at a mass burial. All the men dead at the hands of Bryan, punished for daring to kidnap his daughter and trying to sell her into prostitution. It is there that the main kidnapper’s father Murad Krasniqi ( Rade Serbedzija) vows to avenge his son and his men by capturing Mills and taking him back to his village for vengeance. As luck would have it, Lenore lands up in Instanbul with Kim and the family spends some quality time together. Their happiness is short-lived as Bryan and his ex-wife are chased and then ‘taken’ soon after.

He manages to send out a call to his daughter at their hotel and warn her of the impending danger.
He asks her to get to the safety of the US embassy but she insists on rescuing them. So he guides her to where they’re being held. After that, it’s a will-she won’t-she affair? Screenwriter Luc Besson and director Olivier Megaton play to their strengths.

Both have made films that have involved either abductions or high-octane action sequences and car chases. Liam Neeson mouths the cheesy lines and still sounds believable.

If you’re a fan of the actor or films with a similar storyline, you will enjoy this one. The car chases and the hand-to-hand fight scenes are not to be missed. Despite his bad-man act, Rade as Murad plays a convincing father driven mad by grief and your heart does reach out to him, never mind the evil he so clearly embodies. Also, this is one of those revenge flicks where you know how it could end but you’ll strap on your seatbelt and go along for the ride anyway.