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:

kidnapping | revenge | avenging son's death | funeral | handcuffed to a pipe | 

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Taglines:

First they took his daughter. Now they're coming for him.

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Genres:

Action | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and some sensuality

Did You Know?

Trivia

When production was announced, it was not immediately clear if Liam Neeson would return for the lead role. Mickey Rourke was considered as a replacement, before Neeson confirmed his return.

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Goofs

The yellow Mercedes Benz taxi that is stolen by the Millses changes from the original launch shape of that particular W124 Mercedes Benz to the facelift W124 model and vice versa.

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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. Later on, other Fox-produced films are featuring this message.

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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.

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Connections

Referenced in A-klassen: Et år efter (2013)

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Soundtracks

Dertler Benim Olsun
Written by Orhan Gencebay
Performed by Orhan Gencebay

User Reviews

Your typical follow-up

Bryan(Neeson) is in Istanbul, when suddenly, his ex and daughter show up... the combination of females and a foreign country immediately causes a villain(Serbedzija, who tries and fails to be particularly intimidating or memorable) to materialize(as well as a revenge story), and abductions occur. As you can probably already tell from what I describe, this goes for a more mainstream Hollywood feel(and if you make the "brilliant" counterpoint that it's made by Frenchmen, I will have to slap you... we're talking about the approach, it doesn't need to actually come out of the US), not daring to take chances, in spite of that being the strength of the first one(this one has a bit fewer surprises), presumably to ensure profits by being blander(and thus inoffensive). We now have scenes that we've seen before in this genre, playing out the way we'd expect them to. On the plus side, this does still keep the pace fast(if the energy dies out and is then revived somewhat, several times... it's already a tired premise, they really should have left it at just one movie), the rampant misogyny of the original is gone, the dark tone is maintained yet with a little humor(keeping it from being as unpleasant), based around the obsessive nature of our retired CIA operative lead. And the action is mostly good, sometimes great and intense. The so-swift-you-only-barely-perceive-it cutting is now reserved for the hand-to-hand combat, and there are more chases and shootouts, which get very dumb and boring at times. The female characters are written better, they feel like human beings. Lenore(Janssen) is no longer an insufferable bitch(this one can actually see things from her side!), and Kim(Grace) is downright active and important, not to mention that you can feel the mental scarring of the events of the '08 one, along with increased maturity and her still being an upbeat person(they also sexualize her, showing off Maggie's delicious bod... very Shannon, in that regard), and she does nice acting in it. The filming is not as solid with the loss of the director Morel(an expert cinematographer), and Megaton(badass name by the way) moves the camera excessively, causing the viewers to lose focus of where people are in relation to each other, taking us out of it. There is a lot of PG-13(because this is what you want 13-year-olds watching) violence and mild language and a tad of disturbing content and blood. I recommend this to those who want more of "the same", even if it's inferior. 6/10

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Japan]

Country:

France USA Turkey UK

Language:

English Turkish Arabic

Release Date:

5 October 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

Taken 2

Filming Locations:

Turkey

Box Office

Budget:

$45,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$49,514,769, 7 October 2012

Gross USA:

$139,854,287

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$376,152,455

Company Credits

Production Co:

EuropaCorp, M6 Films, Grive Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min 98 min (Extended Version)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS DTS Dolby Atmos Dolby Surround 7.1 Auro 11.1

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1