Not surprisingly (to the audience, at any rate), Murad has his men take a run at the Mills family. Does it really make sense for him to bring his daughter and ex-wife closer to these people? We know that Albanian crime boss Murad (Rade Sherbedgia) vows revenge upon Bryan, who killed Murad’s son (among many others) while rescuing Kim.Bryan isn’t privy to the footage we’re watching, but he’s got to logically figure that all of those casualties he amassed last time around may have some survivors who are annoyed with him. This brings us to one of many big “wait a minute” thoughts. When Bryan gets a brief bodyguard stint in Istanbul, he invites Lenore and Kim to come over and visit him. In TAKEN 2,Bryan notes that Lenore is separated from her husband and she seems in a conciliatory mood. In many respects, it feels like an ultra-big-budget very special episode of a TV show (think NCIS or PERSON OF INTEREST if the main action heroes had families), but there’s a comfort food feel to the familiarity.Īs viewers of the original TAKEN know, Kim went on a vacation to Paris and got kidnapped by Albanian sex traffickers, which resulted in her dad Bryan killing what seemed to be a couple zillion people in the course of finding and rescuing his daughter. TAKEN 2 on the one hand is even sillier than its predecessor, but it also seems to be exactly the movie its makers set out to put forth. The sequel to 2008’s TAKEN, TAKEN 2 brings back ex-Black Ops agent Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), still worrying about his teenaged daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) and her mom/Bryan’s ex Lenore (Famke Janssen).
It’s hard to figure out how to rate TAKEN 2. Stars: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Rade Sherbedgia