TAKEN 2

Taken 2 is, of course, the sequel to the box office hit Taken where Liam Neeson plays a CIA agent "with a certain set of skills" who goes after bad guys who target his family. In the first Taken, Neeson's character goes after the men who kidnap his daughter while she's vacationing overseas and sell her into sex slavery. In the second Taken, the menacing father whose sons were killed by Neeson's character in the first film targets Liam's character and his family, including both his daughter and his ex-wife. In the first one, you had to suspend disbelief a little to enjoy the film. In the second one, you have to suspend disbelief a lot. I mean, Neeson's character's family decides to meet up with him while he's on "business" in Istanbul (since, you know, the family going overseas worked so well the FIRST time!). Of course, it just so happens that the bad guys are already waiting for them when they arrive in Istanbul! Secondly, when the bad guys kidnap Liam's character and his ex-wife, he calls his daughter via a hidden cell phone he's got and tells her to get to the U.S. embassy and, when she refuses, he relents and lets his daughter help rescue him thereby putting her life in danger. You with me so far? (And, while we're at it, how the bad guys never overhear him talking to his daughter on his cell phone is beyond me!) So she's throwing grenades and getting into car chases with her father running away from the bad guys AND the police. See what I mean about suspending disbelief when watching THIS film? Now this isn't to say that Taken 2 is a bad film. It's actually OK as far as action movie sequels go. It's just that the first Taken was a lot more leaner and meaner. Of course, just like in the first one, it's a real treat watching Liam Neeson's character dispatch the bad guys who seek to do him and his family harm one-by-one. And, I must say, the father of the slain sons is a REALLY nasty SOB who tells Liam's character while he's chained up that he's going to kidnap his daughter and sell her again to the sex trade where she'll be "abused" repeatedly. Later on, he tells the ex-wife while she's chained up, after saying what a "good mother" she is, that she'll send her back home piece-by-piece. Of course, he gets what he deserves when Neeson's character . . . well, you'll just have to watch the flick to find out, all rightie?