Retired CIA agent Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is on vacation in Istanbul with his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) when he and Lenore get taken by the father (Rade Serbedzija) of a man Bryan killed in the first film.

I had a good time with the first movie, and this was a sequel I never really wanted to happen. However it did and I had to give it a watch. I just felt like the first one was fine as a stand alone and this felt just like it would be a rehash of that and nothing more than cash grab, which it is exactly what it was. I am not saying this movie was terrible, it was a passable film, especially the second half of this movie was at least watchable. There are some moments that just felt silly and absurd like how Brian even figured out exactly where he was taken too. I'm not even going to try figure that one out and also the part with the grenade tosses, that didn't even feel real.

Liam Neeson returns as the seemingly indestructible action star. He gives a solid performance as you would expect, even the more heartfelt scenes he did well. Famke and Maggie were ok in their roles this time around, nothing special but not bad either. I thought Serbedzija was good as a grieving father who wanted revenge for his son's death. Him as the villain is the only better part of this movie than the first, I found Marko from the first to be not as compelling. I think a reason for that was his motivation in this film that gave him more meaning.

It takes a while for this movie to finally get going with its slow build up, but its passable action gives it some watching value. Not a very good film. 4/10.