Taken 2 (2012)

In Istanbul, retired CIA operative Bryan Mills and his wife are taken hostage by the father of a kidnapper Mills killed while rescuing his daughter.

Director:

Olivier Megaton

Writers:

Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen,

Stars:

Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Liam Neeson	...	Bryan Mills
Maggie Grace	...	Kim
Famke Janssen	...	Lenore
Leland Orser	...	Sam
Jon Gries	...	Casey
D.B. Sweeney	...	Bernie
Luke Grimes	...	Jamie
Rade Serbedzija	...	Murad Krasniqi (as Rade Sherbedgia)
Kevork Malikyan	...	Inspector Durmaz
Alain Figlarz	...	Suko
Frank Alvarez	...	Car Wash Attendant
Murat Tuncelli	...	Custom Officer Albania
Ali Yildirim	...	Imam
Ergun Kuyucu	...	Mirko
Cengiz Bozkurt	...	Border Guard #1

Storyline

The retired CIA agent Bryan Mills invites his teenage daughter Kim and his ex-wife Lenore, who has separated from her second husband, to spend a couple of days in Istanbul where he is working. Meanwhile, the patriarch of the community of the Albanian gang of human trafficking, Murad Krasniqi, seeks revenge for the death of his son and organizes another gang to kidnap Bryan and his family. Bryan and Lenore are abducted by the Albanians, but Kim escapes and is the only hope that Bryan has to escape and save Lenore.

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Plot Keywords:

albanian | revenge | teenage daughter | vacation | terrorism | 

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Taglines:

They want revenge, They chose the wrong guy.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Thriller

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Certificate:

14A

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

France

Language:

English Turkish Arabic

Release Date:

5 October 2012 (Canada)

Also Known As:

L'enlèvement 2

Filming Locations:

Turkey

Box Office

Budget:

$45,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$49,514,769 (USA) (5 October 2012)

Gross:

$139,852,971 (USA) (15 February 2013)

Company Credits

Production Co:

EuropaCorp, Grive Productions, Canal+

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min 98 min (Extended Version)

Sound Mix:

Datasat Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Diego Boneta and Xavier Samuel auditioned for the role that went to Luke Grimes.

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Goofs

When Brian tells Kim to draw circles on the map and then to set a grenade, he counts 4 seconds till he hears the sound and tells her to draw a 4.5km circle. Sound travels at 340m/s - roughly 3 seconds per km - so it would take 12-13 seconds to travel 4.5km.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Murad: He slaughtered our men, our brothers, our sons. The dead cry out to us for justice. On their souls, I swear to you. The man who took our loved ones from us, the man who has brought us such pain and sorrow, we will find him. We will bring him here. We will not rest until his blood flows into this very ground. We will have our revenge.

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Crazy Credits

The last shot of the credits states: "The making and legal distribution of this film supported over 14,000 jobs and involved over 600,000 work hours." This is the first movie with such message of Fox campaign to educate consumers on economic impact of film and TV.

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Connections

Referenced in Movie Friends: Prashant Prabhakar (2013)

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Soundtracks

Tick of the Clock
Written by Johnny Jewel
Performed by Chromatics (as The Chromatics)
Courtesy of Italian Do It Better Records

User Reviews

Taken 2: Don't go

So, its a stinker!

If you came to see Liam Neeson kicking ass, my advice is turn back now and save your money. This is entirely due to the inability to actually see what the heck's going on in all of the films actions sequences and stunt co ordinations. The film looks like it was filmed on the site of a permanent earthquake with a camera dangling by a rope. If you have epilepsy this might be one to avoid considering how quick its been edited. Its almost like director Olivier Megaton said "yeah we're going for the subliminal message type look, edit it like that" And you want anything remotely reminiscent of the first films action? well forget about it because it hasn't been included.

What you will be treated to however is a cheap, watered down child friendly, completely unrealistic, trashy, knock off 'Rom Com with bullets' B reel, sold purely on the title of "Taken" alone.

Huge plot holes dominate the script from start to finish, in its purest form its basically an awful rehash of the first film but 1000 times worse, placing Maggie Grace (Bryan Mills daughter) as the heroine trying to rescue her parents from a load of bungling Albanians (yes they are literally that bad, think of Manuel from Faulty Towers and you have your starting point) . Liam Neeson does his best with what he's got, but there's only so much you can do with a turd script like this. Unfortunately its so laughable that Neesons character starts to look like a paranoid delusional psychopath that sees kidnappers everywhere. They must have forgotten to include the scene where Neeson gains his super power to spot evil doers just by looking at them, but hey that's what happens so get over it!

Not only that but did anybody even look at a map before this script was written? Had anybody even been to Turkey or Albania? Clearly its the best location in the world to magically learn how to drive a car, because that's what Maggie Grace does! However there's also a dire lack a qualified torturers because no one can do it, or interrogate or generally manage to do anything right! Alternatively, if you feel like throwing some hand grenades off rooftops without anybody batting an eyelid then this might just be the place for you. Don't worry about the police, they'll be to busy driving around in there 1970s bangers they hauled right off the scrap heap, where this movie also came from.

Unfortunately the worst news is that Taken 3 already seems to be on the horizon. Many of you will be asking 'how...why....who....???' but unfortunately money speaks louder than taste. I imagine the plot will be an all black screen and Liam Neesons voice over "Your money has been taken". The horror that it was a 12a should have sent alarm bells ringing before I even bought the ticket, alas my money and respect for the film industry is now gone forever. What's even more painful is the fact that Luc Besson is partly responsible for this mess, Luc Besson! director and producer of some truly awesome films.

Please don't see this film, please don't be 'Taken' in