Taken 2 Movie PosterThe second installment of the Taken series has Liam Neeson showcasing an array of specialist skills to free himself and his wife after the events of the first Taken.

Liam Neeson plays Bryan, a security specialist who recently rescued his daughter Kim after she was kidnapped and sold on the open market (for prostitution).  During the rescue he killed every man he came across who played a part in her kidnapping.

With the aftermath of the rescue and all of the deaths, one man’s father wants revenge on the man (Bryan) who killed his son.  So whilst Bryan, Kim and her mother Lenore are on holiday in Istanbul this man, Murad (who also employed the other men killed) plots to kidnap all three of the family members and get his revenge by killing them all.

When Bryan and Lenore are taken (I know!), Bryan calls his daughter Kim, and works with her over his phone to keep her out of trouble, and help Bryan escape and keep both Kim and her mother from danger.

An Interesting Look at Bryan’s Methods

This movie does a good job of taking a situation that would seem hopeless and it seems that Bryan almost instantly has a way of figuring it out.

He knows long before him and Lenore are taken what’s happening around them.  Once caught he manages to keep his daughter safe from harm by giving her a quick call. He then later reveals a secret & small phone which he kept in the leg of his jeans.  He then calls Kim with further instructions to help uncover his location, and she even delivers a gun to him.

Kim climbs out the window

Listen to Bryan count the seconds, turns and sounds around him was the first hint that he was already on the case, which he followed up by using the sounds of the grenades (let off by his daughter in different locations) to pin point his location on the map.

The whole though process was well explained and made for a compelling yet interesting feel to the first half of the film before the action takes over.  It no point do ever feel that he is threatened though, as he seems almost too prepared for this situation for the crims to pose any real threat.

The Action

The movie is filled with chases.  The chases on foot are pretty entertaining, but are best when Liam Neeson’s character is doing to chasing (as opposed to being chased).  There’s a few good fights and interesting gun work that mixed in as he slowly chops his way through the assortment of criminals holding his ex wife.

The car chase was fun to watch especially considering that Kim was the driver and not Bryan.  Earlier in the film we learn that Kim has failed her driving test and is having trouble passing, so this difference in her driving (guided by her father who is in the passenger seat shooting) made it interesting as she drove wildly through the narrow streets of Istanbul before finally smashing through the front gates of the US embassy.

The Car Chase

Ultimately the pace of the movie was pretty constant but there seems to be less to it in comparison to the first film.  The first Taken seems to have a few more environments to go through before Bryan found his daughter, and the journey somehow seemed longer. In Taken 2 they seem to be kidnapped and escape very quickly, with Bryan then chasing down Lenore as she is being carried away by her kidnappers.

This made the movie feel much ‘smaller’ in my opinion, however still a top notch action film.

The Martial Arts

I think the use of hand to hand combat in this movie is also a little less, but there were some decent martial arts shown.

There were a lot of very shaky camera shots that disguised what could have been a lot of shortcomings in the choreography, but they also managed to show enough to keep martial arts fans slightly interested.

Liam Neeson kills again

In close hand to hand fighting was the most used, with shots of Wing Chun style hand work flashing up occassionally.  These fights were exciting, but as with the rest of the film, seemed less impressive than the first and a little too quick.

My Overall Opinion?

This lives up to a percentage of the first, but is overall the same quality of movie – just on a much smaller scale.  It’s still a definite action classic in my opinion.  In terms of martial arts I’d say it barely scrapes in under the definition ‘martial arts’ movie, due to the small amount of hand to hand combat shown.

Either way I recommend it!  It’s interesting as well as exciting and really brings that protective nature that we all have to the surface as a main theme of the film.

On Blu Ray –

Region A (US & Canada)
Taken 2 [Blu-ray]

Region B (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Europe etc)
Taken 2 (Blu-ray + UV Copy)

On DVD –

Region 1 (US & Canada)
Taken 2 on DVD

Region 2 (UK, Europe, etc)
Taken 2 [DVD]

Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, etc)
Taken 2 on DVD

More info on Movie Regions here.

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