Liam Neeson does it again, but with a bit more effort. Taken 2
is a good sequel for those who were fans of the original, but it is not
great. The opening scenes are edited with flash bang wizardry and get
you into the film without time to fasten your seat belt. Bryan (Neeson)
invites his estranged wife. the competent Lenore (Famke Janssen), on a
holiday in Istanbul with his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). Lenore and
Kim hem and haw about wanting to go, but then appear in Istanbul
surprising Bryan. But the family does not surprise the Albanian
terrorists who are laying in wait for Bryan because he killed their
sons.
Moored Krasniqi (Rade Sherbedjia) has vowed to seek revenge for Bryan's bloody murderous swath of his family. Bryan and Lenore are almost immediately captured leaving Kim to hold the familial fort. Kim does a bang up job of taking direction from Bryan over her cell. (Oh, where would we be without technology in these action films.) Here the plot loses a bit of credibility as Bryan instructs Kim over the cell about to find Lenore and him in congested Istanbul with one marketplace built upon the other. Lenore is being tortured by the Albanians while Kim has managed to escape the terrorists who had wanted to capture the entire family and transport all three to Albania, then kill them in a public demonstration of loyalty to the sons that Bryan slaughtered.
The acting is top drawer and Neeson manages to hold the audience's attention save for fleeting moments of laughter when Neeson is a bit too deft with his ability to kill off Albanians.
Moored Krasniqi (Rade Sherbedjia) has vowed to seek revenge for Bryan's bloody murderous swath of his family. Bryan and Lenore are almost immediately captured leaving Kim to hold the familial fort. Kim does a bang up job of taking direction from Bryan over her cell. (Oh, where would we be without technology in these action films.) Here the plot loses a bit of credibility as Bryan instructs Kim over the cell about to find Lenore and him in congested Istanbul with one marketplace built upon the other. Lenore is being tortured by the Albanians while Kim has managed to escape the terrorists who had wanted to capture the entire family and transport all three to Albania, then kill them in a public demonstration of loyalty to the sons that Bryan slaughtered.
The acting is top drawer and Neeson manages to hold the audience's attention save for fleeting moments of laughter when Neeson is a bit too deft with his ability to kill off Albanians.
More @ Huff Post
Brock, I have never seen (and I am only a recent RSS subscriber) your blog link to TPC. I have to tell you, in my opinion, Peter is well over the line from separatist to outright supremacist. The anti-semitism in his review above is profound, and distasteful to me.
ReplyDeleteWhat prompted you to link to this? Its a four year old movie (that was merely ok back then,) with a sequel out (not reviewed here or linked) that is getting even worse reviews today in the wider press.
There was nothing that I learned from the review other than some surprising allegations that Jews are responsible for human traffic/slave trading (in my 20 years experience, it is actually Albanians and Turks with some Moroccan involvement that drive the trade from Europe and the Northern ME - it differs in Asia and Mid to Southern Africa.) There were also some old canards in regards to Jewish materialism.
I am just wondering if those are your views - and if not, what you found redeeming enough to link to the article.
My error. Dixie and I were going to see this tomorrow and I thought this was the current one. I should have paid more attention, but was swamped with this Benghazi travesty. Thanks and I'll change it.
DeleteNot a dull moment, I assure you, regardless of what the critics say.
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