Made as a low-budget B-movie that sent up U.S. politics and values even as it emulated American genre films, it grossed $227 million worldwide. In “Taken” (2008), helmed by Pierre Morel, Neeson’s Los Angeles-based Bryan Mills went after Albanian slave traders who kidnapped his 17-year-old daughter in Paris. bow, the Fox release will draw crowds simply because it’s supposedly the last installment of the lucrative franchise, but they’ll just be hostages to tedium. Opening in Hong Kong on New Year’s Day, a week ahead of its U.S.
French director Olivier Megaton, who at least paced “Taken 2” with workmanlike efficiency, executes the pedestrian plot without a shred of tension or finesse. Rating: 6.Running out of kidnapped relatives for Liam Neeson’s ex-CIA killing machine to rescue, scribes Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen turn him into a fugitive framed for murder in “ Taken 3,” a mind-numbing, crash-bang misfire that abandons chic European capitals for the character’s own backyard.
TAKEN 2 MOVIE REVIEW SERIES
Hopefully the series can match Neeson’s intensity with the upcoming Taken 3.
Its sequel is more comfortable simply winning over Taken and Neeson fans so if you count yourself among that number, you’ll be satisfied. Taken was a welcome treat for action fans in the tradition of the Jason Bourne saga films. Rade Serbedzija’s Murad Krasniqi leads the bad guys and with his gravelly voice and thick beard, he exudes an old-school classic movie villain until the second act when his cool vengeful calm gives way to frantic would-be target trying to escape Bryan’s fury. But again, Neeson as bada$$ killer trumps most of the film’s lack of creativity. And Bryan’s kill count in the sequel is surprisingly five short of the 35 he killed in the first film. It doesn’t ruin the film, but getting the younger sidekick/child assistance is more of a third film move than a sequel where we just want to see Bryan doing more of what we loved from the first installment. To mix things up a bit, Bryan and Lenore are initially captured and things get dicey via a credibility-stretching sequence where Kim has to help Bryan escape. With a few days to kill in Istanbul after wrapping up his last assignment, Bryan invites them to visit him, just in time for the bad guys to find. It’s a weak attempt to get Bryan and Lenore back together when the dynamic of the exes coming together to help Kim in the original was much stronger.
An unnecessary change this time sees Bryan re-connect with his ex-wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen, The Wolverine), who has separated from her current husband. As a Lost fan, I’m glad Grace is getting work, but at 28-years-old at the time this was released, it’s a stretch to buy her as a teenager. In a slight twist from the first film, Neeson’s Bryan Mills is the one being hunted down as the family members of some of his bullet catchers from Taken are out for revenge and trying to track down him down.īryan meanwhile is focusing on other matters like helping his daughter, Kim, (Maggie Grace, Lockout) get her driver’s license. While he’s capable of shouldering the load, part of what made Taken such a revelation was how effortlessly Neeson made it look. This time, the film demands more of Neeson carrying it to a respectable fun level. Instead, he just acts as the franchise’s caretaker unwilling to truly shake up status quo. The passing of the baton is perhaps a little too smooth as Megaton largely follows in Morel’s footprints.Īction scenes are quick and sped up through frequent clipping to retain the series’ feel, but Megaton doesn’t take enough chances to create the film in his own image even down to a similar setting. While Taken director Pierre Morel doesn’t return, screenwriters Luc Besson and Mark Kamen are back for a second go-round joined by Transporter 3 director Oliver Megaton.