Taken 2 (Extended Harder Cut) (DVD)

Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills, the retired CIA agent ‘with a particular set of skills' who stopped at nothing to save his daughter Kim from Albanian kidnappers. When the father of one of the kidnappers swears revenge and takes Bryan and his wife hostage during their family vacation in Istanbul, Bryan enlists Kim to help them escape... "10/10. The thrill ride of the year"--Daily Star Special Features: • Extended and theatrical feature. Coming at a time when the action genre was dominated by shaky-cam Bourne editing shenanigans, 2008's Taken registered as a pleasantly streamlined surprise: a straight-ahead thriller where the clean, clear style both matched and accentuated Liam Neeson's ruthless-blunt-object force. Strangely, the sequel feels much more in line with producer Luc (The Transporter, Colombiana) Besson's other franchises--noisy, chaotically slammed together, and in dazed thrall to its own flash. (If there's an opportunity for a swooping helicopter shot or a fruit-cart collision, this sucker's going to go for two.)