Review of Taken 2 (2012) by Rudy M — 29 Jul 2014
Neeson is back as Bryan Mills, a retired CIA agent who has to fend off his family's kidnappers on foreign soil. This time it's not his daughter (Maggie Grace) that they have, but his wife (Famke Janssen). Needless to say, there's a lot of clever and bordering-on-unbelievable action. But hey, this is a movie, after all!
It's a relatively entertaining run for 90 minutes as Neeson re-runs the good-hearted death dealer in a different country. Now this different country is what seems to get most people going about this movie. You can't look left or right on the interwebs without finding a review of this movie that slams the way the setting (Istanbul, Turkey) is portrayed.
For some reason, hundreds of people (from the Turks I can understand it) from all over the world seem inclined to comment on this movie and say that it shows Istanbul as a backward Muslim country, where the police have newer cars than the movie suggests. Blah! So what?! This is a movie. Never did it say: "actual events" or anything like it.
Do I go to IMDB to read rants about how Mr. Megaton (cool name, by the way) the director misrepresented Turkey in this film because he didn't show a modern, democratic country where "women have more rights than in some better known democratic countries". No. Not really. Review the movie. Don't abuse your 'review' with political propaganda! Talk about the acting, the production, the story!
The acting is fine. It's nothing spectacular, but it gets the job done. I regularly see far worse in most contemporary movies. The production is good, albeit a little uninspired. You do get the idea that this movie was the obligatory sequel for monetary reasons. The story is, unfortunately, more of the same.
Pros: Well-produced, great action and scenery.
Cons: More of the same.
Verdict: Mediocre. Not good, mediocre.
This review of Taken 2 (2012) was written by Rudy M on 29 Jul 2014.
Taken 2 has generally received mixed reviews.
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