Taken 2

The original "Taken" '08 garnered critical acclaim as well as audience appeal mostly from the intense presence of Liam Neeson and the slick, tight script by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. Well, these guys just couldn't help themselves, so they decided to do it again with, yep, you guessed it-- "Taken 2".

Bryan Mills (Neeson), the former CIA agent who rescued his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) from Albanian human traffickers, is being targeted now by the families of the men he killed, namely the father, Murad Krasniqi (Rade Serbedgia) of some of those men. When Bryan goes to Istanbul for a job, he invites Kim and her mother, Lenore (Famke Janssen) whose marriage is on the rocks and are presently separated. When the Albanians hear of them being in Istanbul, they try to kidnap them only missing Kim, because Bryan suspected they were being followed. So Kim is able to evade them and later Bryan calls Kim to get his case which is filled with weapons. So with his directions, she locates him to get those much needed guns. Bryan escapes and plans to come back for Lenore, but ends up being outnumbered. So he, at this point, must rely on his memory of city sounds at the time he was blind-folded when kidnapped, to enable him to find her.

Others to round out the cast are Leland Orser as Sam, Jon Gries as Casey, D.B. Sweeney as Bernie, Luke Grimes as Jamie, Kim's boyfriend, Kevork Malikyan as Inspector Durmaz, and Alain Figlarz as Suko.

This was intensely directed by Olivier Megaton ("Exit" 2000, "Transporter 3" '08, "Colombiana" '11). Besson and Kamen make a great writing team and since they also wrote "Transporter 1,2 and 3", intensity with a dose of slickness is definitely their trademark. Their were a few implausibilities, such as Bryan getting a case of guns and grenades on the plane-- whether it be for business or not, and Bryan being able to tell where he was by city sounds not once, but twice seems a bit sretched. In any rate, these guys are talented storytellers.

This isn't as gritty and gripping as its predecessor, as most sequels fall into this trap, but if you did like "Taken", rest assured, you will also get into this one all the while rooting for the good guy.

Out of 4 stars: 2.5                    Rated: PG-13                       92mins.