The father (Rade Serbedzija) of the kidnapper from the original Taken wants revenge for the death of his son, so he plots to capture and kill Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) while he's in Istanbul on a business trip. Unfortunately, Bryan's daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), and ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) also turn up and become targets, too. This time Bryan and Lenore are taken, and Bryan employs Kim for a little outside help. Bryan escapes with Kim, but Lenore is moved to another location, and Bryan must use all his skills to find her again. Unfortunately, he's walking right into a trap. ...
Whenever producer/story writer Luc Besson keeps his low-budget action movies simple, he tends to succeed. The original Taken was both vicious and highly ludicrous, with annoying characters. TAKEN 2 seems to have corrected all of that. The characters find themselves in a better place and are more sympathetic, and the movie seems to have more of an anti-revenge stance.
Taken 2 Free Movies
Taken 2 is more of the same, except a little bigger, a little dumber, and a little less invigorating. If Neeson seemed to be going through the motions in Taken, that's doubly the case here, where it's apparent from body language and facial expressions that he'd rather be anywhere else. But, hey, he could always be sitting behind a desk instead of getting a free vacation to Turkey. Neeson's recent resume reminds me of Gene Hackman's in the '80s and '90s, when he accepted nearly every role presented to him. Although Hackman is rightly remembered as a good actor, he appeared in a lot of schlock. But, because bad movies often pay well for the participation of respected talent, he reaped the benefits and has been able to enjoy a long and comfortable retirement. Neeson's trajectory appears similar and, when his career is over, Taken 2 will be nothing more than a footnote.
The funerals of the Albanian mobsters killed by Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) in the prior film are held in Tropojë, Albania. At the funeral, Albanian mafia boss and freelance terrorist Murad (Rade Šerbedžija), vows vengeneance against Bryan Mills for the death of his son Marko.
While he is tied up, the Albanian mobsters bring in a hooded and struggling Lenore. One takes a knife and makes a small cut to her throat before hooding her and hanging her upside down by chains. They tell Bryan he has to watch her bleed out and die before he dies. They also tell him that Kim will be captured and sold to "the worst brothel that exists", with a scared Lenore begging them not to with her muffled sounds. When the mobsters leave, Bryan tries to escape and calms down an increasingly panicky Lennie who breathes harder and harder before becoming unconscious. She is then rescued by him, but due to circumstances, is forced to leave her before coming back for her and call Kim to detonate two more grenades so he can determine his location. The grenade detonations enable Bryan to guide Kim close enough to see steam he sends up a chimney to mark his precise location. Kim tosses the gun down the chimney. Bryan uses it to kill the Albanians in the building, then saves Kim from her rooftop pursuer. Lenore, however, is taken away by her captors. They steal a taxi and follow the captors. Leaving Kim in the taxi, when Bryan returns to retrieve Lenore, he spots the gang taking her to a van. He shoots at the van but fails to save her. He returns to the taxi and both Kim and Bryan head to the Embassy as Kim drives the taxi. A chase and shootout with the police and captors' henchmen then take place, ending when Kim and Bryan cross a railroad track; the henchmen being killed after their vehicle is hit by a train.
Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club gave the film a C grade, writing, "What begins as a family outing, with a hint of rekindled romance between the parents, devolves into kidnapping (the word 'taken' gets thrown about liberally), torture, high-speed chases, and other misadventures probably not smiled upon by the Turkish Board of Tourism. None of it is particularly novel or exciting." Scott Bowles of USA Today gave the film 2 1/2 stars out of 4, writing, "The first half of Taken 2 is a serviceable action flick, but the second half descends into cliches" and "[a]t times, Taken 2 even steps from the shadows of the original with some terrifying imagery and an improved relationship between father and daughter. Alas, the movie can't help but descend into a pat part two, bereft of much suspense or tension." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 2 stars out of 5, concluding, "In the first movie, from the tailend of the Bush era, Liam was not shy about using Jack Bauerish torture techniques, wiring up evil-doers to the mains and zapping them with righteous volts. None of that now. That was a 15; this is a 12A, a bit tamer, just as ridiculous, but the premise is looking pretty tired."
Bryan Mills's ex-wife Lenore (Janssen) and daughter Kim (Grace) are taken for different reasons. In the first film, Kim (along with her friend Amanda) is taken because an Albanian human trafficking ring wants to sell her into slavery. According to the franchise's mythos, virgin Americans fetch a high price on the black market, and it just so happens that Kim is one.
His portrayal of Mills bleeds into his real life, at least a little bit. Since the release of the first Taken, it's hard to think of a movie where Neeson doesn't play Mills or someone that resembles Mills. This is not unlike the perception that follows around actors like Michael Cera and Sarah Jessica Parker, who are often seen as the characters they play in movies and television.
But in addition to his more sophisticated tactics, Bryan offers practical tips to use in case you are ever, yourself, taken. For instance, consider shouting out descriptions of abductors to anyone who will listen, or remembering things like directions and how long your ride in the trunk of a car was/is.
According to the a safety protocol guide on the USDA's website, it's recommended that you remain passive (just like Kim in the first movie) with your abductors. The guide also explains that you should, like Mills does in the second film, try to visualize where you are being taken:
While being confined and transported, do not struggle. Calm yourself mentally and concentrate on surviving. Attempt to visualize the route being taken, make a mental note of turns, street noise, smells, etc. Try to keep track of the amount of time spent between points. You will be asked questions about this after your release in an effort to determine where you were held.
The UN guide also goes into PTSD and trauma, but the films don't really get into this. After being taken in the first movie, Kim goes and sees a pop star. The second film ends with everyone sharing milkshakes and introducing themselves to Kim's new boyfriend
The story is set in a dystopian United States where John Galt leads innovators, from industrialists to artists, in a strike to reassert the importance of the free use of the mind and of free market capitalism.
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After racking up a daunting body count in both France ("Taken") and Turkey ("Taken 2"), the destructive Mills family (who really should consider going into the witness protection program, not only for their own safety, but for ours) turn their sights on the sunny freeways of their home town, Los Angeles, in "Taken 3". Starting with the unimaginative (and, as it happens, incorrect) title, "Taken 3," directed by Oliver Megaton, is both lazy and tremendously overwrought. Anchored, as always, by a sincere performance by Liam Neeson, as well as the additional gravitas provided by Forest Whitaker as the police officer tracking Neeson down, the film pulses with indifference. "Taken" and "Taken 2" were preposterous, but entertaining: care had been given to the plot as well as the filming so that they worked as thrillers. Many didn't care for the sequel, but I liked it a lot, especially the cinematic use of the architecture in Istanbul, which showed a real understanding for how action happening in a very specific landscape can be exciting and suspenseful. "Taken 3" doesn't want to take the time to set things up carefully or clearly, so that while you can perceive that you are on the highway out to Malibu, or careening along the 405, the film doesn't use the specific landscape or architecture to help tell its story. It's just a frantic, flash-cutting frenzy. Even the slower, more intimate family scenes feature so many swooping-up-from-below shots and so many sudden inserts that moments (emotional or physical) are never given a chance to land.
The number of cuts per scene is astronomical, ensuring that the audience never gets a chance to orient itself in the environment, or, for that matter, care about what is happening. Liam Neeson is impressive physically, but the fight scenes are filmed with so many cuts that the action itself is never clear. In one car chase scene, involving multiple police cars, an 18-wheeler, and the various commuters on the road, a car commandeered by Mills ends up driving the wrong way down a crowded freeway. At least I think that's what I was seeing. The coked-up editing makes it impossible to tell, and it made me yearn, longingly, for the classic car chase scene in "To Live and Die in L.A.," also involving a car barreling the wrong way down a freeway. That visceral, gripping scene in "To Live and Die in L.A." was filmed so specifically that the audience never loses its orientation in space. Effective car chase scenes involve care in the execution: it's not enough to show a car flipping over in slo-mo, surrounding it with 100 quick edits designed to disorient. Ironically, that approach ends up making it look like the movie is trying too hard. 2ff7e9595c
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