When the movie came out though I didn't go to see it. The reason: the bad reviews it was getting.
I finally watched it on DVD the other day. And boy were those reviewers right! What a turkey.
Same writers. Same cast. Luc Besson still producing. Bigger budget. So what went wrong?
I don't really know. The movie was silly. The script was awful. The acting was awful.
I guess I should blame the new director: Olivier Megaton.
Now I don't know much about Mr Megaton but IMDB tells me the following about his surname: "Megaton takes his name from his birthday : the 6th of August 1965 is the 20th anniversary of the dropping of the Hiroshima A-bomb"
OK. Enough said.
I guess he must be to blame. He is certainly to blame for ruining all of the action/fight sequences by needlessly shaking the camera (I really hate that). Pierre Morel directed the first movie and he made Neeson look as if he could beat up bad guys without feeling the need to shake the camera continuously.
My rating: 4/10 (turkey)
Here is a shot of Neeson and his daughter being pursued through the streets of Istanbul. She is driving (don't ask). Neeson shouts the following at his daughter repeatedly throughout the case: "Faster", "keep going", "do it", "come on". Excruciating! The shot shows him shooting out of the passenger window. I am completely at a loss to know why he would choose to shoot at a pursuing car through the passenger windows when it would be so much easier to do so out of the rear window!
The most unbelievable thing of all may be that IMDB indicates that there will be a "Taken 3"!