Customer Reviews

Taken 2 (Blu-ray + UV Copy)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Three stars for Liam Neeson, as he is a very good actor, but if you have seen the first this is very much the same, only much more tame as it has a lower certificate rating, to get more people to see it, so far less violence, although it has it moments.

Stripped back from the violence and tension of the first film, this plays like a second rate Bourne movie, yes there are fights and explosions, a couple of good car stunts, but this really feels like all involved were just doing it for the pay cheque, and not to advance the film series to anything more or different, in the action/spy genre.

This time Liam gets 'Taken' by the villains from the first films family and underworld thugs.

Not long after he escapes, and proceeds to kick the bad guys into touch, using his gun and fighting skills. Thats it in nutshell, not much emotion or even plot detail (which the first managed to pull off very well on both counts) and not much in terms of original action or filming techniques.

By no means a bad film, it is entertaining, but a very weak sequel to a very good first outing, worth a watch but a real sell out, and fans of the original may feel cheated.

I am a manager at the local cinema so I get to watch all the new releases well in advance. Like so many I loved the original but Taken 2 fails to live up to the hype. It's over the top plot and silly love story really spoils the entire film. Liam Neeson gives a great performance but even his genius cannot save this film. It looks as if it was rushed to screen just to take peoples money. Bring back the days when producers and writers took pride in films. No doubt Taken 3 will be talked about and possibly made lets just hope they can go back to basics and deliver something original. Liam deserves better.

I went to see this film in the cinema and was thoroughly disappointed! If you are thinking of getting the DVD don't, there are far better films out there you could spend your money on.

My overall impression of Taken 2 having been a fan of Taken is - not bad, but rushed and the 12A rating means it lacks depth and the grittiness edge it needed.

The story follows on from Liam Neeson's character Bryan Mills, the resourceful ex-agent with the particular set of skills that were the star of the first film.

Bryan Mills is providing protection for VIP's and is operational in Instanbul where he invites his daughter and ex-wife to join him after his operational dutues for a short break. Interesting the anger towards his exwife has mellowed and he has reconciled with her Lenore (Famke Janssen)to a point where now that her second husband has left he feels close to her again (although not that close...)

The twist on the first film is that while in Instanbul the family of the thugs who he so devastly killed in Taken have decided it's time for revenge for the hurt he did in killing fathers, sons and brothers. So here, Bryan gets "taken", together with Lenore, leaving his daughter Kim to track them down and save them both.

To this point the film has credibility but this soon get's questioned when the daughter Kim is tasked to finding her mum and dad via instructions from her captured father - leading to an elaborate and highly unlikely scenario where via a map, shoelace and grenades Bryan and Lenore are located. The sequence happens too fast and raises an eyebrow not only to the ingenuity but to how farcical it is carried out perfectly at the first attempt by a teenager with no experience.

Now the film moves ahead at rapid pace and Bryan takes over the city's market, street and rooftops, bazzar as he tries to outwit and escape as the gangsters try in vain to capture his daughter.

So, the scene is set for a thrilling violence induced cat and mouse chases and pumping up the grim deeds of the gangsters to try and stimulate the hatred that brings a relief when our hero takes them out one by one. But this is where the film is just too lightweight.
Taken was a 15 rating (Strong violence/scene of torture) which on DVD was moved up to an 18 after adding in more scenes.
So why on earth did the producers set this as a 12A 'Family rating'? Seems crazy. This rating is reflected in the mildness of the 'violence' and no use of bad language and little if any blood.

It's pretty obvious that bullets do not enter flesh with gangsters falling over and knives are brandished, used but nothing is shown to reveal the true butality of what the film is trying to portray. Even the final stages of Bryan's fightback against the gangsters' family leader Sherbedgia and his chief bodyguard is over in no time with a few punches, slaps and a banged head. A missed opportunity to draw this scene out to a climax.

Taken was no classic, but it had a hard edge and a real sense of urgency and the film was well proportioned over the allocated time slot. Taken 2 does come across as a follow up to perhaps cash in on the success of Taken to a wider audience. The opportunity was there for a 115 minute film that built up nicely with some severity in the gangsters intentions and their equal demise, here they just don't scare you too much and the film has too many cliches' and unlikely features - Bryan not being fully searched when captured, sleeping guards, 5 men against 1 with no injuries etc.

Taken 2 succeeds in most part though and is an efficient pacy thriller that never let's up. It just had so many more opportunities to be a really good film. Instead the cheesy final scene of a happy family laughing back in the US sums up the gentile family friendly positioning of the film.

Worth seeing though.

Liam Neeson is an excellent actor but this is a turkey - unless you just can't get enough of shallow sentimentality, incomprehensibly edited action scenes, lengthy car chases (garnished with the inevitable overturned market stalls), and a discordant, industrial racket for an accompanying soundtrack (the purpose of which is to make the whole thing appear much more exciting than it actually is). Not to mention the totally implausible plot devices.

*This review contains spoilers possibly revealing major plot points*

Taken 2 briefly highlights the events of the previous 'Taken' film, ensuring new cinema-goers who haven't yet seen the first film, will without doubt be able to acknowledge the characters and dilema's Neeson and his family get themselves into.

Now, as fun and as thrilling as the first joyride was, the sequel does suffer in terms of originality, creativity and character depth. The plot falls flat and is almost formulaic, with every little "I will not rest until I seek my revenge" one-liners. Not to mention the almost unbearable writers slack embedded into the script; the standard bland insipid 'Hollywoodesque' one dimensional villain trope and the overt xenophobia theme with Albanian's being the central targets overriding every cliche in the book.

Now I realise in order to enjoy this film, you'll have to be prepared to suspend reality to a certain degree (let's face it, the scene as Liam Neeson's character is somewhat able to escape the imprisonment was just absurd, and the old couple sitting opposite me were giggling like little girls at how cringe-inducing it was). I also felt the length of the film was too short, and could've easily done it justice and been more effective with more dialogue filler and insight into character development rather than a mindless illogical map scanning scene (If you know what scene I'm talking about, you'll probably be laughing at how sheerly irrational and nonsensual it was).

In addition to all that, the film remains uninspired and for the most part; entirely forgetabble. It is also devoid of any actual intentional 'humour' excluding the irony throughout, which is just as funny in itself. However, thinking back at it now, 'Taken 2' can undoubtedly be watched after a hard day's work as the plot provides barely any consumption of brain fuel.
Give or take, Liam Neeson is a top notch actor and fun to watch and should certainly persue to do greater works in the future (I do hope he stays away from an apparently rumoured third revamp, as that could be a potential death of a successful career).

In a nutshell, the film failed to live up to my expectations, but if like me, you are a Neeson buff, then by all means it's certainly worth a shot (pun unintended), but if you're just looking in the realms of a poignant masterpiece, then don't bother.

Liam Neeson plays Bryan Miles again and this time he is in Istanbul, Turkey rather than Paris, France. Despite Liam insisting that this would be the last Taken with a opening weekend of $100 million worldwide there will be more, I guarentee it. The original Taken was simple- get my daughter back and kill the bad guys with an 18 Rating, here Bryan it is not so simple, the rating is 12, oh oh.

By the time this comes out on DVD it might have been revised to 15 but I doubt it; Taken 2 is a film the whole family can enjoy with no more violence than an episode of Corrie or Eastenders. The cinema I was in was packed with families with children no more than eight watching. I couldn't tell from their faces but they did not seem to be scared for life.

Anyway back to the plot; the fellas that Bryan killed in the original and still the best Taken are back for revenge from beyond the grave through their considerably large extended families. SPOILER ALERT: NOT ALL MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY GO ON THIS TRIP (WATCH OUT FOR TAKEN 3).

This film is more of the same stuff with Bryan killing as many people as he likes with no draw backs; one incident should have him as the most wanted man in Istanbul but seems to have little downsides to the character.

If you saw the original and want a mindless, efficient action film with no humor then this is for you. To quote Jason Statham 'We are not making Shakespeare here, we don't expect an oscar'. Also after a number of films I am getting used to Liam Neesons terrible American accent-maybe it's seeing Rory McIlroy on the TV; Liam's doesn't sound as bad.

an enjoyable film with a simple plot and great action. enjoy.

Taken 2 might be worth a watch on a cheap rental, but for a cinema outing it's not worth bothering. There have been many, many films based on the plot of one super-tough guy opening a can of whoop-ass on some miscreants who've kidnapped his family, and Taken 2 brings nothing new to the table. I think Bruce Willis pretty much said and done it all with his Die Hard films, and did a much better job at portraying an ordinary but very capable guy in an overwhelming situation. And of course, there's 24... Liam Neeson's character comes across as extremely sleepy and unremarkable, in comparison with John MacLane and Jack Bauer.

Taken 2 has its car chases, escapes from impossible situations, use of wits against weapons, cool hand to hand fights - but there is more of it in any 20-minute snippet of an episode of 24. Also, Neeson just fails to breathe life into his character, and for an actor of his calibre, there is quite a lot of very, very hammy acting. As a result, it feels, and even looks made-for-TV. And almost at no point is there much sense of any real danger - the whole cinema was laughing and groaning by the end, as the protagonist dispatched baddie after baddie.

Overall, it is a pretty lazy effort from everyone, and honestly feels like some 80's straight-to-VHS mediocrity.

I saw Taken 2 at the cinema with all my friends! I was really looking forward to it, as I thoroughly enjoyed the first one, and as a filmmaker myself, I was looking forward to getting some tips from this film... I did get a tip, do NOT make a film like this!

Yes, action scenes were great. Yes, Liam Neeson = God
BUT, the editing was FAR too choppy, making me feel a little sick at times, and the plot just didn't hold up the the first. It had it's good moment,s but these were overshadowed by it's bad moments... A let down indeed! :(

Every year has room for one truly cynical release, taken 2 is that film for 2012. Take heavyweight franchise breaker Olivier Megaton and add him to 2009 sleeper hit. What you get is a film that removes the biting violence that defined and made the original such a big hitter and hid it within impenetrable editing to get the more profitable rating of a 12A. If that was a conscious decision by the creators, that would be fine, but it won't be, there will inevitably be an extreme cut released on DVD. Somehow taking away the viciousness of the violence and repeating the same thing from the first film only in a different city, the spark from the first film seems to shine less bright.