Taken 2 (2012)

Summary: The Albanian criminals who had abducted Kim in Taken are on the case, and wish to take revenge on Bryan Mills for killing the son of the leader. They discover he is in Istanbul, having finished a security job and go to the city. Meanwhile his ex-wife, Lenore, and his daughter, Kim, have decided to visit. The Albanians capture Bryan and Lenore but Bryan is able to contact Kim using a hidden mobile, instructing her to detonate grenades in order to find out his location. Having done so she finds his prison and gets a gun to him, with which he takes on the villains. Lenore is recaptured leading to an extended car chase. Can Bryan over come the Albanians and win the day?

Content: No sex or nudity. Quite a lot drinking in a variety of locations and  circumstances. The Albanians also smoke a lot.  There are chases on foot over the rooftops of Istanbul and an extended car chase with Kim driving a taxi, the hook being that she is still learning to drive. Bryan Mills takes on the villains with hand guns, machine guns and in hand to hand combat. Lenore is distressed when being tortured by the Albanians. 

A View: This film cost about $40 million to make and achieved the astounding result of covering its production costs on its first weekend, my personal measure of success. I am a Luc Besson fan so I would always give one of his films a go, but the critics could be right in determining that there is not a lot in Taken 2. If anything there are just too many Albanians, according to IMDb Bryan kills 30 of them, and it is a bit much to characterise the Turkish police as villains. However you could have it on and look up from doing something else during the exciting bits.

Some other Luc Besson films reviewed on this site which are worth a look include: The Transporter, Lucy and The Fifth Element.