Those of you who know me personally will be well aware that
2008’s surprise hit Taken is one of
my least favourite films since, well ever. I deeply disliked the casual
xenophobia, cartoonish depiction of Yurop (Europe)
and all round head kicking dullness. As you can imagine then, the idea of Taken 2 did not excite me and I had no
intention of putting myself through another dose of nonsensical, skull crushing
chaos. That was until I was on a recent flight with eight hours to kill. Having
already seen films I wanted to see on the flight out I was short of things to
entertain me so tentatively pressed the Taken
2 button and closed my eyes in shame and fear when I hit ‘play movie’.
The film follows on from the events of Taken which if you don’t know involved the teenage daughter (Maggie
Grace) of ex C.I.A. man Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) being ‘taken’, get it? by a
group of Albanian people traffickers to be sold into sexual slavery. This all
happened in Foreign (France)
where everyone is evil and speaks English, not French. So, it’s a few years
later and Mills is still overly protective of his teenage daughter, who looks
about thirty by the way. He goes to Istanbul
for a job and his daughter Kim (Grace) and ex wife Lenore (Famke Janssen)
surprises him with a visit. Meanwhile the family of the nondescript but dead
Albanians from the first movie are seeking revenge and ‘take’ Bryan and his ex
wife.
