Accused of a ruthless murder he never committed or witnessed, Bryan Mills goes on the run and brings out his particular set of skills to find the true killer and clear his name.
A retired CIA agent travels across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris.
An air marshal springs into action during a transatlantic flight after receiving a series of text messages demanding $150 million into an off-shore account, or someone will die every 20 minutes.
A man awakens from a coma, only to discover that someone has taken on his identity and that no one, (not even his wife), believes him. With the help of a young woman, he sets out to prove who he is.
While on a tour of the White House with his young daughter, a Capitol policeman springs into action to save his child and protect the president from a heavily armed group of paramilitary invaders.
After their plane crashes in Alaska, six oil workers are led by a skilled huntsman to survival, but a pack of merciless wolves haunts their every step.
A group of Iraq War veterans look to clear their name with the U.S. Military, who suspect the four men of committing a crime for which they were framed.
Mobster and hit man Jimmy Conlon has one night to figure out where his loyalties lie: with his estranged son, Mike, whose life is in danger, or his longtime best friend, mob boss Shawn Maguire, who wants Mike to pay for the death of his own son.
Disgraced Secret Service agent Mike Banning finds himself trapped inside the White House in the wake of a terrorist attack and works with national security to rescue the President from his kidnappers.
Director:
Antoine Fuqua
Stars:
Gerard Butler,
Aaron Eckhart,
Morgan Freeman
When his peaceful life is threatened by a high-tech assassin, former black-ops Agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) reassembles his old team in a last ditch effort to survive and uncover his assailants.
Frank Martin puts the driving gloves on to deliver Valentina, the kidnapped daughter of a Ukrainian government official, from Marseilles to Odessa on the Black Sea. En route, he has to contend with thugs who want to intercept Valentina's safe delivery and not let his personal feelings get in the way of his dangerous objective.
Director:
Olivier Megaton
Stars:
Jason Statham,
Robert Knepper,
Natalya Rudakova
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.Written by
Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Although this movie mostly involves Albanian mafia and thugs, there is only one member of the cast who actually is Albanian. See more »
Goofs
After Bryan notices he is being tailed with Lenore and takes the BMW, he winds up driving through a food stand. Throughout the scene, the car constantly changes between being dirty and covered in food and perfectly clean. See more »
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.
See more »
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. Later on, other Fox-produced films are featuring this message. See more »
Alternate Versions
The UK cinema version was cut by the filmmakers after the BBFC informed them a '15' rating would likely be given to the film. Three scenes of violence and threatening scenes were edited and a '12A' rating was then given. See more »
After watching the very badass Liam Neeson's new movie, Taken 2, which I was desperately looking forward to because the original was all sorts of fantastic, I have been enlightened in strange ways. There was this bright light, and a tunnel, and it was dark and all of a sudden, my mind was filled with knowledge that helped me figure out the art of making a big-budget hit Hollywood film sequel. Here are five commandments that can come in handy for you too, whenever you make your hit Hollywood movie and are confused about what to do in the sequel:
1. Thou shalt not have any plot, whatsoever
It's sort of stupid, isn't it? Because if the studio had a script with a plot or a story of its own, why on earth would it waste it on a sequel? It would much rather make another movie out of it, which could have its own sequel with no plot! Actually, it's sort of genius, then!
This, of course, is painfully obvious in Taken 2, where the plot is exactly as elaborate as the movie's poster tagline: They want revenge. They chose the wrong guy. In the original, Taken, the daughter of a retired CIA agent, Bryan Mills (Neeson) is kidnapped by human traffickers and he has to use his "particular set of skills" to save her. In Taken 2, Mills and his wife are kidnapped by the same guys — because they want to kill him for killing their relatives in the first movie. The only thing thinner than this plot is the IQ of the mafia, which brings us to the next point.
2. Thou shalt have stupid bad guys Of course, this is an obsolete argument, because if the bad guy was intelligent, the good guy would die and more than anything else, there would be no more sequels. So it's important for villains to do daft things like not kill the good guy after they capture him because they want him to feel pain (*cough*, The Dark Knight Rises, *cough*).
But here's the level of daftness of the bad guys in Taken 2. In a major turning point of the movie (it's even in the trailer), Mills' ex-wife is held on gunpoint and he's asked to give up his arms and be taken, or his ex-wife dies. Like a good estranged husband, Mills gives up his arms, but after making a minute-long phone call to his daughter in front of the bad guys, systematically explaining to her the situation he is in right now and what she needs to do to not get caught, as the understanding, well-intentioned bad guys wait for him to be done, because they probably have daughters too, you know. And after all, the most he could have been doing on the call was call reinforcements, right? Wait, what?
3. Thou shalt have foreign villains It has always made so much more sense to Hollywood to have villains who are not only menacing and evil, but talk in a language, that – HORROR OF HORRORS – they can't understand! So Hollywood villains are generally outsourced cheap labour from Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East and South America (never India, because Indians probably don't have the time to be evil since they are so busy in taking over US jobs and driving cabs). Also, it's just creepier when the good guy has no clue if the bad guys are plotting a nuclear strike or discussing Bigg Boss in front of him.
Taken 2 takes this commandment and as a first, turns it uniquely over its head — in the movie, it's not just the good guy who can't understand the frightening foreign villains, apparently the hipster foreign villains can't understand him either (because learning English is so mainstream, yo). Or else why would the bad guys spend approximately 15 minutes of screen time looking for Mills' daughter — after he called her in front of them and told her to hide in the closet?
4. Thou shalt have fiery dialogue exchanges sort of Every mainstream Hollywood movie depends as much on its big-budget special effects and action as it does on its dialog . *chokes with laughter*. Sorry, I couldn't get through with that sentence with a straight face. Here's an example of the exact dialogue exchange the main bearded baddie has with Mills, after he has caught him and his wife, and is torturing them — with his accent, that is — rather than, you know, killing him:
Bad guy: I will kill you because you killed my sons Mills: But they kidnapped my daughter first! Bad guy: I don't care, they were my sons! Mills: But they sell young girls to Arabs!! Bad guy: BUT THEY WERE MY SONS. Mills: You know what, just kill me. Before your accent or logic do.
Okay, maybe I paraphrased that last bit, just a little bit.
5. Thou shalt substitute intelligence with action
So where do the studios put the money that could have bought them a decent plot, good dialogue writer, and locally-sourced American bad guys that could have helped the unemployment rate too? Answer: In LOTS of unapologetic, in-your-face action and kickass action. Taken 2 has a lot of those, and that's always, always a good thing.
There's also a sixth, secret commandment here, which really isn't that much of a secret, or much of a commandment, for that matter. No matter how badly you do, if the audience liked the first movie, it will watch the sequel and then wait for the threequel to buy the DVD box-set (guilty, as charged). And where Taken 2 is concerned, plot or no plot, watching Liam Neeson kick butt is always going to be worth it!
After watching the very badass Liam Neeson's new movie, Taken 2, which I was desperately looking forward to because the original was all sorts of fantastic, I have been enlightened in strange ways. There was this bright light, and a tunnel, and it was dark and all of a sudden, my mind was filled with knowledge that helped me figure out the art of making a big-budget hit Hollywood film sequel. Here are five commandments that can come in handy for you too, whenever you make your hit Hollywood movie and are confused about what to do in the sequel:
1. Thou shalt not have any plot, whatsoever
It's sort of stupid, isn't it? Because if the studio had a script with a plot or a story of its own, why on earth would it waste it on a sequel? It would much rather make another movie out of it, which could have its own sequel with no plot! Actually, it's sort of genius, then!
This, of course, is painfully obvious in Taken 2, where the plot is exactly as elaborate as the movie's poster tagline: They want revenge. They chose the wrong guy. In the original, Taken, the daughter of a retired CIA agent, Bryan Mills (Neeson) is kidnapped by human traffickers and he has to use his "particular set of skills" to save her. In Taken 2, Mills and his wife are kidnapped by the same guys — because they want to kill him for killing their relatives in the first movie. The only thing thinner than this plot is the IQ of the mafia, which brings us to the next point.
2. Thou shalt have stupid bad guys Of course, this is an obsolete argument, because if the bad guy was intelligent, the good guy would die and more than anything else, there would be no more sequels. So it's important for villains to do daft things like not kill the good guy after they capture him because they want him to feel pain (*cough*, The Dark Knight Rises, *cough*).
But here's the level of daftness of the bad guys in Taken 2. In a major turning point of the movie (it's even in the trailer), Mills' ex-wife is held on gunpoint and he's asked to give up his arms and be taken, or his ex-wife dies. Like a good estranged husband, Mills gives up his arms, but after making a minute-long phone call to his daughter in front of the bad guys, systematically explaining to her the situation he is in right now and what she needs to do to not get caught, as the understanding, well-intentioned bad guys wait for him to be done, because they probably have daughters too, you know. And after all, the most he could have been doing on the call was call reinforcements, right? Wait, what?
3. Thou shalt have foreign villains It has always made so much more sense to Hollywood to have villains who are not only menacing and evil, but talk in a language, that – HORROR OF HORRORS – they can't understand! So Hollywood villains are generally outsourced cheap labour from Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East and South America (never India, because Indians probably don't have the time to be evil since they are so busy in taking over US jobs and driving cabs). Also, it's just creepier when the good guy has no clue if the bad guys are plotting a nuclear strike or discussing Bigg Boss in front of him.
Taken 2 takes this commandment and as a first, turns it uniquely over its head — in the movie, it's not just the good guy who can't understand the frightening foreign villains, apparently the hipster foreign villains can't understand him either (because learning English is so mainstream, yo). Or else why would the bad guys spend approximately 15 minutes of screen time looking for Mills' daughter — after he called her in front of them and told her to hide in the closet?
4. Thou shalt have fiery dialogue exchanges sort of Every mainstream Hollywood movie depends as much on its big-budget special effects and action as it does on its dialog . *chokes with laughter*. Sorry, I couldn't get through with that sentence with a straight face. Here's an example of the exact dialogue exchange the main bearded baddie has with Mills, after he has caught him and his wife, and is torturing them — with his accent, that is — rather than, you know, killing him:
Bad guy: I will kill you because you killed my sons Mills: But they kidnapped my daughter first! Bad guy: I don't care, they were my sons! Mills: But they sell young girls to Arabs!! Bad guy: BUT THEY WERE MY SONS. Mills: You know what, just kill me. Before your accent or logic do.
Okay, maybe I paraphrased that last bit, just a little bit.
5. Thou shalt substitute intelligence with action
So where do the studios put the money that could have bought them a decent plot, good dialogue writer, and locally-sourced American bad guys that could have helped the unemployment rate too? Answer: In LOTS of unapologetic, in-your-face action and kickass action. Taken 2 has a lot of those, and that's always, always a good thing.
There's also a sixth, secret commandment here, which really isn't that much of a secret, or much of a commandment, for that matter. No matter how badly you do, if the audience liked the first movie, it will watch the sequel and then wait for the threequel to buy the DVD box-set (guilty, as charged). And where Taken 2 is concerned, plot or no plot, watching Liam Neeson kick butt is always going to be worth it!
For more reviews: http://www.firstpost.com/author/nikhil