REVIEW

DIRECTOR:  Olivier Megaton

STARRING: Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Lelan Orser , Maggie Grace

RATING: 9/10

The trails and tribulations of the adolescent: learning how to drive, falling in love for the first time, trying to avoid being kidnapped by Albanian sex traffickers…twice. Sound familiar? It would to Kim (Grace), daughter of ex-CIA operative Bryan Mills (Neeson) who is fresh off the mentally-scaring experience of the first film, that would have sent your average teen to a psychiatrist for life. This time, the Mills family are taking a vacation to Istanbul when brutality ensues at the hands of the kidnappers father and results in Lenore (Jenssen) and Mills being taken. Predictably, Mills escapes and true to form he puts on that leather jacket and you know shit’s going to go down. However, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree as he enlists the aid of Kim to help save her mother, which results in one hell of a driving lesson.

New director Megaton stuck to the basic cat and mouse structure of the first Taken film, recycling a massively successful formula that ensures anyone who loved the first film will certainly enjoy this sequel. Much like previous highly anticipated sequels such as The Hangover 2, the story-lines remain pretty similar, just set in a different country. This predictability of the film lets it down to a certain extent, but it is clear that the aim of the film was to capture the same thrills and technicality of the first, which it truly does. Besides some dodgy over-protective father-daughter moments, your still left wishing that Neeson could be your dad.

Katie Griffiths