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Liam Neeson is back as Bryan Mills, the man with a special set of lethal skills in Taken 2, and a trailer has been released overseas that shows no shortage of action. The first film, which recast Neeson as an action superstar, had a smart script by Luc Besson and Robert Kamen, and Fox released it at a fortuitous time. It came in the wake of the financial collapse on Wall Street in 2008, a time when people felt helpless to do anything but watch their investments crater. And then here was a guy in a desperate circumstance that most people would be powerless to stop, but getting his daughter back before she is sold as a sex slave is the one thing he can do well. Will the sequel have the same kind of resonance? Probably not. It looks a lot like the original premise, with revenge. But I can’t wait.
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Did he just piss off the most interesting man in the world?
lmao…
I hear he take him down w/ a Dos Equis bottle to the throat.
DougMac…..your comment had me LOL!!!
this time he eats their faces.
Needs a better title. Taken 2: The Re-Takening or Taken 2: Taken Again or Taken 2: The Takener’s Revenge or Calgon Taken Me Away.
T2: The Takenator
Taken 2: Take Harder
Considering ‘Taken’ was a very well-liked movie (just look at its leggy US-run and DVD sales/rentals), I think the sequel will have at least a spectacular opening weekend (30M+), the rest will depend on quality. Neeson has become a big BO-draw since the first film, he succesfully opened both ‘Unknown’ and ‘The Grey’…and if he could open ‘The Grey’ for Open Road Films in JANUARY (!), he will most certainly open this sequel with a decent October release date…to be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if the OW exceeded even 40M.
Taken 2: Electric Boogaloo
Taken 2DD
Taken 2 the streets
Taken 2: Europe’s Most Wanted
Taken 2: Vampire Hunter
Taken 2 the streets is an awesome title!
I’m just going to go straight to part 3:
Taken with a Vengeance
Taken Beyond Thunderdome
Recent titles: Taken, Gone, Missing; upcoming titles: Absent, Tardy, Misplaced.
Screw Batman and Superman. Who would win a fight between Jason Bourne and Bryan Mills?
Yes Mike, it’s because of the stock market crash that this made a lot of money….
…..
Bring on Taken 3: To Take Out, in which Liam Neeson declares war on Albania and kills the entire population.
I’m sure it will do well, and pretty much anybody involved deserves a fantastic opening weekend – but to me it looks like the cheapest kind of sequel. ‘Taken’ was spectacular because it was an action movie with an unusually emotional core – the phone call between Bryan and his daughter is one of the movie moments in decades – but this time? Same procedure as every year. They even reused that call.
I was sceptical when I heard about this, but now I know I’m not going to see it.
Disagree: Taken stood out because Neeson’s character was such a badass eg shooting bad guys in the back, and because of the relentlessness of the violence. If this trailer is indicative of the ratio of action to drama, the film is screwed. But if it’s merely teasing the story, with action to follow in the feature, I can sleep easy tonight.
Disagree all you want — but you are dead wrong. This is not even subjective. It’s a fact. People went to see the first one because of that phone call moment in the trailer. Otherwise, it’s another middling Eurocorp movie that most Americans never even heard of. Realistically, it was a total B movie with B movie action. But that phone call made audiences really want to root for Neeson’s character. I challenge you to be honest — don’t go rewatch — but name three “great” scenes from the movie other than that phone call. You can’t, cuz there aren’t any. There’s a bunch of cheaply done, practical stunts that look like something from the 80s. But it WAS FUN. Because for the first time in forever, that phone call gave us an ass kicker we totally enjoyed watching.
Simple ridiculous. And this clueless interpretation of Taken’s success partially explains why Hollywood struggles to make good action films now.
It’s like saying Die Hard was a success because of some classic lines or a great scene. It did have those but above all that was a great story.
Sure great lines help, especially when they resonate and hit the theme so well. But like most successful films Taken hit big time because it was solid gold in every area. It had a simple effective story that emotionally resonated with audiences. The action was brilliantly choreographed. The protagonist had that classic, timeless, appeal…the down trodden underdog rises up and emerges victorious. Not only against the bad guys, but against social and governmental forces. He’s an avatar for middle class, especially male, fantasies.
In fact Taken shares much DNA with Die Hard. The whole “phone call made the film” is putting the cart before the horse. The phone call scene was born of a well made film, not the other way around.
And as to three great scenes, well, let’s say memorable:
1. Liam interrogates the Albanian gangster.
2. Liam confronts Saint Clair.
3. The confrontation with the corrupt French Agent at dinner.
Taken is an old, old, story, that is done extremely well. Obviously a few dislike the fact that such an unashamedly violent film has been so successful. So they rationalize that success by spuriously hanging it all on the phone call scene.
The scene at the dinner table with his corrupt friend was awesome. He turned the tables on him while refusing to be the bad guy in the situation by having the stones to threaten his family personally, instead of being a victim of greed and apathy, while hiding behind a weak “it wasn’t me personally, I just looked the other way” defense.
The daughters just have the worst luck … imagine growing up in that family! Sheesh!
I was waiting for him to say that he’s NOT CIA. He’s an ex-husband! Looking for his ex-wife!
the title should be, Liam Neeson in “Taken a Crap”. Then the 3rd movie can have the Albanians hire the Expendables to go after Liam in Disneyland where he has “Taken” his family for a little vacation, and he just happens to run into Detective John McClane who helps Liam take on the Expendables is a massive 2 hour gunfight incorporating all of the latest Disney movie themed rides….
“It came in the wake of the financial collapse on Wall Street in 2008, a time when people felt helpless to do anything but watch their investments crater.”
WTF?
Nothing helped me cope with my financial losses more than watching Liam Neeson protect his fictitious daughter from a life as a sex slave. My wallet almost felt full again.
Seriously.
As I wrote earlier, I get the feeling that some just can’t handle the fact that a super violent film, with a super violent hero, was so successful.
They can’t comprehend that audiences might actually enjoy righteous violent retribution. So they rationalize it. It’s cos of frikkin Wall Street, or the phone call, or whatever.
Wake up, it’s a primal story. Father visits the wrath of god upon those who threaten his child.
Looks great. Seriously, I can’t wait. Reminds me of the best of Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood.
But one big concern: Why on G-d’s green earth would this family leave Brentwood (or was it Pacific Palisades?) for a summer vacation in Turkey? After all that went wrong previously in Paris, you’d think they would opt for a week in La Jolla.
“How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?” – John McClane
Taken was much better in 1988 when it was titled FRANTIC and actually had suspense as opposed to mind-numbing “action”
No. Sorry. Frantic was dreadful. Boring and slow-paced. The premise was never really plausible (as to the wife’s abrupt disappearance from the hotel suite). Taken is a superior movie on every level. Can’t wait for the sequel.
To make Fleming happy Taken 3 will be nonstop action on Wall Street. Liam will go after the super wealthy banksters who stole all that money from regular people. Liam will represent the average investor who had to bail out the billionaires. Taken 3: Wall Street Avenger!