Movie Review - Taken 2

Taken 2 (2012)

Starring Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, and Famke Jannsen

Directed by Olivier Megaton

Taken 2 may not be the worst movie of 2012, but it may very well be the most offensive in its blatantness at being a pure cash grab for 20th Century Fox.  The fact that US audiences ate this up to the tune of nearly $140 million further disgusts me.  The first Taken wasn't exactly a cinematic masterpiece, but it was a fun ride and served as a launching pad for Liam Neeson to shift from an art-house favorite to cash-grabbing and less selective action star.  More power to the guy for making dough, but at a certain point, it's time to take on something a bit more challenging than continual turns as a generic bad ass -- leave that to Jason Statham who has shown he refuses to play any role that doesn't contain that characteristic.  

As far as a plot, Taken 2 borrows heavily from its predecessor except this time instead of teenage Kim (Maggie Grace) being taken by Albanian baddies for their sex trading schemes, her retired CIA agent father Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) and his ex-wife (Famke Jannsen) are abducted by the revenge-seeking family members of the Albanians Bryan killed in the first movie.  Ugh.  It's utterly ridiculous and incredibly lame.  Am I really supposed to believe that Kim is going to be able to awkwardly run through the streets of Turkey (a country she knows nothing about) and save her father?  Rather conveniently, Bryan stashed a miniature cell phone in his sock so he's able to talk his daughter through how to set off grenades and also give her a mini-cartography lesson.  In that not-so-clever way movies like this often foreshadow things to come, in the film's excruciatingly boring first half hour, Bryan teaches Kim how to drive, so when she commandeers a Turkish taxi, she's able to careen through the narrow alleys without a bit of trouble.  And it should come as no surprise that we're left with the ability to continue on Bryan's story in future movies to come!

I almost could have dealt with the hackneyed and rehashed plot if there was any amount of excitement at any point in time, but director Olivier Megaton fails to create a modicum of tension in the action sequences.  Obviously having graduated from The School of Quick Cuts based out of Michael Bay's backyard, Megaton (who I despise even more after discovering that he took that last name because his birthday is the 20th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima which is horridly tacky) is just lazy with some of the worst chase sequences I've seen in years.  Everything about this movie looks cheap and all the actors seem like they're just there for the cash and nothing else.  The first Taken was silly fun, but this comes nowhere near that level.

The RyMickey Rating:  D