No one expected that the 2008 French thriller Taken would be a success, but to everyone’s surprise it grossed $226,830,568 worldwide.  The film turned its star, Liam Neeson, into an action star.  The film involved an ex-CIA agent, Bryan Mills, whose daughter gets kidnapped by an Albanian trafficking ring while visiting Paris.  Liam Neeson is then forced to come out of retirement in order to save her, which he (SPOILER ALERT) succeeds.  Now after four years we’re given the sequel that nobody wanted, Taken 2.

In this film, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is tasked with the job in Istanbul.  Bryan comes up with the idea of taking his daughter (Maggie Grace) and ex-wife (Famke Janssen) with him for a family trip.  But, little does Bryan known that a group of Albanians is out for revenge on Bryan for all of their men slain by him in the previous movie.  It dosen’t take long for both Bryan and his ex-wife to get kidnapped by them.  Now it’s up to Bryan and his daughter to escape.

I enjoyed the original Taken.  It wasn’t fantastic but it was still a fun action movie nonetheless.  Unfortunately this movie was mediocre.  The biggest flaw was the action sequences.  They were poorly filmed and almost impossible to understand what was going on.  This is due to the shaky camera and sloppy editing.  Also, some of the acting was very wooden and led to some unintentionally funny lines (especially from Liam Neeson).  However I did like the pace.  The movie never had a dull moment and was exciting throughout.

Overall, the movie was mediocre.  It was unnecessary, terribly shot, but enjoyable nonetheless.  If you just want to watch a fun action movie, I recommend you see it but not until it comes out on DVD.  Final Rating: 3/5