Taken 2
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: October 5, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
19
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerOct 5, 2012
The director of this jamboree is appropriately named Olivier Megaton. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 4, 2012
Taken 2 is like a textbook on how to make beautiful, successful and highly satisfying junk-food cinema. When it's just a plot point, the information gets tossed out as fast and as forcefully as possible. Time is lavished only on the things that matter. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertOct 3, 2012
The cast is uniformly capable and dead serious, and if you're buying what Luc Besson is selling, he's not short-changing you. Read full review
70
TimeRichard CorlissOct 8, 2012
Somehow Neeson makes the ridiculous plausible. A mature, real man in an era of superhero fantasy, he radiates something rare in movie musclemen: a haunted gravity to match his outsize physique. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranOct 4, 2012
At a beefy 6-foot-4, Neeson certainly looks physically imposing, but it was the notion of casting someone who can actually act in an action hero role that was the counter-intuitive concept that made both films - Taken 2 is more a remake than a sequel - so successful. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaOct 4, 2012
Granted, the film lacks the kicky element of surprise that made the first movie so enjoyable, but it's hard to gripe too much. Taken 2 aims to be a fast-paced, workmanlike sequel that shows off its charismatic leading man, and that's exactly what it does. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterBernard BesserglikSep 18, 2012
Moviegoers who liked Taken and want more of the same will get precisely that. Read full review
63
USA TodayScott BowlesOct 7, 2012
The first half of Taken 2 is a serviceable action flick, but the second half descends into cliches. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonOct 4, 2012
Less magical is the blind adherence to formula evident in most of Taken 2. As they might say in the advertising department, it's an adrenaline-fueled thrill ride. But it could have been much more. Read full review
55
NPRStephanie ZacharekOct 5, 2012
On the plus side, the action sequences - desaturated, chopped up and herky-jerky as they are - are mildly thrilling. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 6, 2012
Taken 2 is more of the same, except a little bigger, a little dumber, and a little less invigorating. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenOct 5, 2012
Just a mediocre action franchise with a solid actor at the head and a travelogue in its heart. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianM. E. RussellOct 4, 2012
The movie's excessive and logistically goofy in a way "Taken" wasn't. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumOct 4, 2012
You know what happens in Taken 2, don't you? The same thing that happened four years ago in Taken, but different. (But the same.) Read full review
50
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerOct 4, 2012
What follows seems like a nonstop car and foot chase, with Albanian after Albanian falling victim to Bryan's remarkable aim and hand-fighting skills. Foreigners bad, Americans good, box office busy. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisOct 4, 2012
It's a stupid movie by smart people who aren't smart enough to realize it's stupid. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaOct 4, 2012
The moral of Taken 2? If you're going on a family vacation, be sure that the human-trafficking ring you put out of business in that far more satisfying and suspenseful thriller from a few years ago doesn't know how to find you. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsOct 4, 2012
A movie with no surprises at all, a streamlined chase flick that is running on the fumes from recycled fuel. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovOct 3, 2012
It's fun enough on its own relatively low-budget merits, but it's really nothing to die – or kill – for. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsOct 3, 2012
None of it is particularly novel or exciting. Read full review
50
Boxoffice MagazineAmy NicholsonOct 3, 2012
Taken 2 is 91 minutes of "See Neeson kill-kill, Neeson kill!" Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 5, 2012
The screenwriters go out of their way to prepare you for Taken 3: Serbedzija has more sons, and Kim's virginity is getting harder and harder to preserve. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 4, 2012
The premise is looking pretty tired. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierOct 4, 2012
Taken 2 has a plot that could have been written by a GPS program, and contains all the technical charm that conjures up. Read full review
40
Village VoiceNick PinkertonOct 3, 2012
Taken 2 rarely embodies the values of concision and focus that it extols, and any breathing room from the hurtling narrative illogic only allows the audience opportunity to notice slips in Mills's father-knows-best infallibility. Read full review
40
EmpireNick de SemlyenSep 30, 2012
The first one offered the novel sight of Oskar Schindler going Commando. Unfortunately, this half-hearted sequel is low on novelty and lower on fun. Read full review
40
Total FilmNeil SmithSep 20, 2012
"What are you going to do?" wails Maggie. "What I do best!" growls Liam. Yet while it's fun to watch him take out the Eurotrash, we've seen him do it better. Read full review
38
New York PostLou LumenickOct 5, 2012
When Neeson engages in bare-knuckle fisticuffs at the climax of the cartoonish Taken 2, I honestly couldn't figure out if the 60-year-old actor was actually present at all except for the close-ups. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineJohn SemleyOct 3, 2012
Some of the basic pleasures of the original remain intact (nobody shoots up a small room of bearded Eastern European men like Neeson), but ultimately the film feels compromised. Read full review
33
The PlaylistGabe ToroOct 6, 2012
It's not a surprise that he most resembles an older Charles Bronson in Taken 2, as both found the enthusiasm to soldier on in the action genre well into their old age. Bronson had a bit more patience with these films: after this, it's doubtful Neeson will. Read full review
30
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 6, 2012
Luc Besson and Liam Neeson and the rest of the furriners who made the inept and offensive Taken 2 don't seem to have gotten the memo from Jason Bourne: Americans don't think our spooks are good guys anymore. Read full review
30
MovielineAlison WillmoreOct 4, 2012
Taken 2 grabs everything that was surprisingly enjoyable about the original film and batters it into the ground. Read full review
25
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 4, 2012
A sequel every bit as clumsy, ham-handed, outlandish and laughable as the original was sleek, tough and efficient. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 4, 2012
Revenge is a dish best served cold, as some Albanian dramatist once said, but Taken 2 isn't good-cold, as in steely and purposeful; it's cold as in "lost the scent." Read full review
20
Time OutTom HuddelstonOct 4, 2012
A cynical film which has only been made, apparently, to squeeze the pockets of anyone who enjoyed the first movie. Why give them the satisfaction? Read full review
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