Taken 2 
Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen
Directed by Olivier Megaton
Rated: PG-13
Run Time: 91 mins
Genre: Action/ Crime/ Thriller
Opens October 5th
By Lisa Minzey
Hey Phoenix Film Fans, this week we screened the sequel to the 2008 thriller Taken. Taken 2 stars Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen, directed by Oliver Megaton.
Retired C.I.S. operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is a man of many layers. He is an overprotective father to college bound daughter Kim (Maggie Grace); a caring “friend” to ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and golf/ drinking buddy to his ex-CIA buddies. Life in Los Angeles is changing for the Mills clan; Kim is working towards getting her drivers license and has a new boyfriend, Jamie (Luke Grimes); Lenore is going through a separation with her current husband and it is turning into a nasty battle. The trip that Lenore had planned for Kim’s Spring Break, the soon-to-be ex husband cancelled at the last moment. Bryan offers to have her and Kim join him in Istanbul after he has finished his freelancing security detail, and they can take in the sights.
Meanwhile in Albania, crime lord Murad Krasniqi (Rade Serbedzija) is mourning the loss of his son and other men from their village. Krasniqi vows revenge upon the man who killed his son; serendipitously, that man is Bryan and his son was the sex trafficking criminal from Paris who kidnapped Kim.
On the third day, when Brian has finished the job in Istanbul, he is surprised by Kim and Lenore who have taken him up on his offer to join him overseas. The first night, he and Kim had a father/daughter date, where Kim hinted around for details on how her parents met. Her ulterior motives are subtlety hinted at when she turns down lunch at the Bazaar with her parents. Fortunately for Kim, she stayed behind, as in route to the Bazaar, Lenore and Bryan are pursued and kidnapped by Krasniqi’s thugs.
Being the cracker-jack op, Bryan was able to make contact with and warn Kim before Krasniqi’s men could find her. He instructs Kim to go to the embassy, but she argues against it and to go find her parents. Will Kim be able to find her parents before something drastic happens? Will Krasniqi succeed in eliminating Mills and his family or will Bryan craft an escape plan to save him and his family?
When Taken was released in 2008, it was spellbinding, enthralling and thrilling. Taken 2 is less thrilling but nonetheless entertaining through its dialogue, endless chase scenes and powerful screen presence of Liam Neeson. Check out Taken 2 out when it opens in theaters Friday October, 5, 2012.
