Liam Neeson was a serious actor (he was Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List, no less), not an action star, and the plot of a former CIA operative's desperate 72-hour fight to rescue his daughter from white slavers was over-the-top silly.
But the trailer of Neeson coolly informing the kidnappers that he was going to hunt them down and get his daughter back, no matter what, struck a chord with audiences: the emotion appealed to women and the violence spoke to men.
Director: Olivier Megaton
Cast: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Leland Orser, Jon Gries, D.B. Sweeney, Rade Serbedzija
Rating: (M)
3 stars (out of 5)
Taken over-performed and it was only a matter of time before Neeson's Bryan Mills would be called upon to reuse his special skills.
Taken 2 (Rialto and Hoyts) is as ridiculously over-the-top as the first.
It has an inscrutable timeline (I think it is set just weeks after the first one finished) and has the most unlikely of setups (everyone decides to unwind by taking a vacation in Istanbul), but none of that counts so long as Neeson is there to sell the emotion as well as the action.
Best thing: Neeson holds this together. You leave the theatre cursing that you will not get to see him as Jack Reacher but instead will have to suffer Tom Cruise standing on a box.
Worst thing: Casting a 26-year-old to play a 17-year-old in a mid-budget quick-turnaround movie is no big deal, but poor old Maggie Grace has an amped-up role and is still playing 17, three years later.
See it with: People who like their violence fast and furious but family-friendly.
By Christine Powley.
