BEFORE: Almost two weeks into Year 7, and I haven't made any progress on the watchlist, which is holding firm at 194 films. That's partly because a whole new crop of films starts airing on the premium channels on January 1, apparently that's when distribution contracts start, and also I've had to keep up with TCM's tributes to Robert Redford and Neil Simon. The Redford films have found a solid home about halfway down the list, but the Neil Simon films will probably be split up according to whether they star Jack Lemmon and/or Walter Matthau, or not. Anyway at the beginning of April I'll have to review (and probably re-order) what's left. I've decided to limit my intake from TCM's "31 Days of Oscar" to just three films, so that I stand a chance of making some progress in February.
Linking from "Non-Stop", Liam Neeson carries over, and if you didn't see this one coming, shame on you. And if you DID see this one coming, you may be starting to think like me. I'd start to worry about that if I were you.
THE PLOT: In Istanbul, retired CIA operative Bryan Mills and his wife are taken hostage by the father of a kidnapper Mills killed while rescuing his daughter.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Taken" (Movie #678)
AFTER: Stand back, kids, I'm going to try and tie this whole crazy thing together. Gandhi was quoted as saying "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind." And that's the reasoning behind "Taken 2" - tracking down the men who kidnapped his daughter in the first film meant he had to kill a LOT of people. Bad people, to be sure, because we like our morality all white hat vs. black hat. But one of those people had a father who's apparently a bigshot in the European underworld, and he comes looking for revenge.
Of course, it happens while he's trying to enjoy some time with his ex-wife and daughter in beautiful, scenic Istanbul. What could possibly go wrong? But they couldn't have this guy's daughter kidnapped again, because that's been done, so the twist this time is that he's taken prisoner HIMSELF, along with his wife, and the daughter's the only one of the three NOT taken. Clear? So now we get to see him work his ex-CIA agent magic when he's right in the thick of things.
But damn, wasn't the best part of "Taken" watching Neeson's character threaten those guys over the phone, saying he possessed a "particular set of skills"? And that he'd find every one of them and kill them? Yeah, there's nothing like that here, but there's a lot of Neeson screaming things like "Quickly! There's not much time!" and "Listen closely! Just do what I tell you!" One of his special skills is being a Mr. Bossypants, I think. Well, I also possess a particular set of skills, they just happen to involve filing payroll reports before their deadlines ("Quickly! There's not much time!") and getting film festivals to forward films and DCPs to the next screening ("Listen closely! Just do what I tell you!"). Yeah, it's much cooler when he does it.
What I do like about the "Taken" films is that Mills is depicted as someone who clearly knows what he's doing, and we also get to see HOW he does it. A kidnapped CIA agent probably would do everything possible to discern his location, and take advantage of any opportunity for escape. Again, I'm no expert on this stuff, but it's nice to see the wheels turning, the process and not just the result.
I'm getting to this film just as "Tak3n 3: The Takening" is hitting theaters. I'm sure that "T4ken 4: 4 Reals?" and "Taken 5: Enou5h Already" won't be that far behind. But based on the whopping huge plot element revealed in the COMMERCIAL for "Taken 3", I don't feel the need to rush to the theater to see it. In fact, just knowing that little tidbit makes watching "Taken 2" sort of pointless now.
Also starring Famke Janssen (last seen in "X-Men: Days of Future Past"), Maggie Grace (last seen in "Knight and Day"), Leland Orser (last seen in "The Bone Collector"), Rade Serbedzija.
RATING: 6 out of 10 ice cream sundaes
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