Taken 2

Liam Neeson returns to kick butt and take names as ex-CIA agent Brian Mills in this sequel to the popular action flick. This time around the family members of the Albanian sex-traffickers who kidnapped Brian's daughter in the first film are dead set on revenge for their fallen comrades. An opportunity for revenge arises when they follow Brian, his ex-wife Lenore and their daughter Kim to Istanbul. There they kidnap Brian and Lenore, leaving Kim to figure out a way to help her parents out of this predicament.

Part of me was excited that there was a sequel when I first heard the news, but as I watched advertisements for Taken 2, I started hating the fact that it was happening. The story is the EXACT same as the original, except this time Brian himself is captured. I absolutely loved the first one, but the sequel is an extremely unnecessary, boring piece of junk. The first Taken felt like a sincere action flick that explored the possible dangers of traveling abroad and also the evil of the sex trade. This time around it was molded into a stereotypical revenge action flick, and a poorly made one at that. I admittedly was still entertained by the action sequences until one specific point in the movie lost me: (MINOR SPOILER WARNING) at one point Brian Mills meets one of the Albanian kidnappers face-to-face and engages him in hand-to-hand combat. It was a pretty cool sequence until the very end when the Albanian man is dying; Brian just puts his hand on the man's face, squeezes then shoves him into the wall...and the guy dies. Just like that. That part was completely unbelievable. I wish I could recommend Taken 2, I really wanted to like it, but it ended up just being another stereotypical revenge flick that's not worth your time or money.