DB's Pixnet

Taken 2, Movie Review

Before I went to Liam Neeson featured movie Taken 2 in local theater of VieShow Cinemas Banciao MegaCity IMAX, of the Warner Bros. with a pack through 2013 finalized to Hong Kong Golden Harvest invested Vieshow Cinamas and the Canadian IMAX, I had spent some time on Wikipedia page doing the homework to preview the movie script outline and starring characters. The movie Taken 2 is distributed by the 20th Century Fox, and produced by Luc Besson.

In the movie Liam Neeson starring Bryan Mills had dropped by Kim Mills and Kim’s mother Lenore’s house in Los Angeles, Lenore told Bryan that a telephone call notifying to stand her up in the planned family trip, therefore Bryan persuaded Lenore that she could be with him for the trip to Istanbul instead. Lenore could not agree more gratefully. Lenore and Kim were meeting Bryan in the hotel reception lobby after Bryan had shaken hands with Turkey official celebrity and received an envelope looks like passport. Then in the hotel room Bryan was greeting Kim and Lenore welcome to Istanbul. Kim told Bryan that Lenore and she planned to give him a surprise, so they did not tell him they would come. On the street of Istanbul, Bryan and Lenore was in a black BMW sedan and followed by a Mercedes Benz Jeep. This alerted Bryan to order the BMW driver turning into a side alley. Stop short in front of a clothe shop Bryan told Lenore to run to the US embassy for help, then Bryan dropped the BMW driver to begin a car chasing show with Mercedes Benz Jeep. Bryan was caught by the Albania mafia chief Murad, chained to be kneed in jail. Murad asked Bryan if he knew any of the dead men on the pictures showed in his hand, Bryan said to Murad that he did not know anyone showed on the pictures. This angered mafia chief Murad, said that his son was dead and he would get it back. Bryan answered that he came to Istanbul because his daughter was kidnapped here. Then the mafia gangsters brought Lenore into the jail in front of Bryan, Murad cut Lenore’s throat, masked her with black clothe and upside down hanged Lenore with chain to the air. The blood was dripping from the black mask clothe to ground, the mafia chief Murad then asked Bryan how long would it take for her to die. Bryan answered that it would take about half an hour. The mafia chief Murad was satisfied with the answer of Bryan and went out with the other gangsters to seize Kim.

Before Bryan and Lenore both seized by the Albania mafia chief, Bryan had shaken hands with important celebrity of Istanbul and had met with Kim and Lenore in the hotel reception lobby. In the hotel room Bryan took off his bullet proof vest and put his gun together into the weaponry metal suitcase, shelved into the hotel closet. Then Bryan with Kim taking sight-seeing boat on the river of Istanbul, Bryan said that to the east side of waterway was culture of East Asian, to the west side is modern European culture, therefore the conflicts were persisting in between of this place. Bryan told Kim that he read it from a book, and the book was in the hotel room he could give her the book to read. In the beginning of the movie, Bryan went to Lenore’s home and asking where Kim had been, Lenore told Bryan that Kim had a new boyfriend. Bryan looked like disguising his emotion trying to appear in high EQ, that’s what it tells the audience they were both adults and well contained. Or maybe it was just out of the deep affection between father and daughter. The Wikipedia page about the movie Taken 2 mentioned several other starring characters, Casey, Bernie, Sam, etc.

Except for the opening scene was the Albania mafia chief Murad addressing in the funeral, a pantoscopic view of the graveyard in the mountains, all the movie were shooting around the Istanbul urban background with a mosque and two Turkey national flags. The Black Mercedes Benz Jeep was chasing black BMW and thereafter a yellow Mercedes Benz stolen taxi, approaching the ending was the stolen yellow taxi crashes break into the American embassy across the USA troops guarded barrier. The flying stripes and star-spangles USA national flags on the rooftop of the embassy, with the political celebrities playing golf in the field immediately answered in responsibility, convulsed the audience’s heart. Kim asked Bryan if her mother Lenore died, Bryan answered that what the mafia wanted was he himself, therefore Lenore would be alive. After sent Kim into the US embassy, Bryan went back to mafia chief’s jail for rescue of Lenore. There was a bare hand fighting with the gangster, then Bryan told the mafia chief Murad if he gives up revenge for his dead son, Bryan could drop the gun in hand to bury the hatchet. Bryan could do it because he said he was tired. The mafia chief Murad agreed. Bryan circled his handgun playing in hand then dropped it onto the ground, but the mafia chief Murad betrayed his words to pick up the gun trying to shoot Bryan from behind. A click sound heard without bullet in the gun barrel. Bryan turned back, showed the bullet in hand dropping to ground, bare hand to knock the mafia chief Murad onto the towel hook to end the play. The story line went to this point as this, what could we say? “That’s right, it deserves that rotten tomato awarded score.”

After the mission in Istanbul, Bryan and Kim returned to the USA. Bryan accompanied Kim to the driving test examination. When Kim passed the driving license examination, Bryan asked what would she want for celebrating, and the father and daughter shared pleasure of Kim’s achievement. The final scene was Bryan, Kim together with Lenore in family vacation on river side of newly built yacht dock, in the observatory restaurant on the far end of the dock for leisure tourists to dine. At the right moment Kim’s boyfriend Jamie coming into the movie scene, along with Lenore’s humor words, “Haven't I told that you should not fire her company?” That’s the tacit agreement showed between the reunited couples and in each other.

Why the last scene would arrange a test for driving license? If there was no caption it would not be that easy for us to make out the sign on the wall, although the movie camera quickly moving back and forth twice on the sign, which should read something like this, “For Test Driver Use Only”. Maybe we could read between the lines. But if you had taken a driver license test before in the California area, you possibly could find out that the facility was for driver license test without necessarily reading what the words are on the sign. That could be the difference between left brain thinking model people and right brain thinking model people. Left brain thinking people only focus on what was important, focus on for one thing or two only. Performing decisions, the left brain people require only simple operation such as choosing between true and false, yes and no, positive and negative, accelerate and brake. By left brain model they ignored the remaining irrelevant details, only focus and patience, waiting for the next decision making point to prompt up. That scene of Kim’s driving license test arranged in Liam Neeson featured movie Taken 2, which especially emphasized the stunt effects and bare hand fightings, supposed to infer “a license”.  

In the movie Bryan was driving a black BMW, and in the BMW he was with Lenore chased by a Mercedes Benz Jeep. The driver was ordered to stop in front of the clothe shop, drop Lenore to run for the US embassy. Then it was in the jail of the Albania mafia chief Murad, when Lenore was cut on the throat and bleeding for dying, Bryan used the communicating device hidden in sock to telephone Kim in the hotel and instructed her to locate Bryan with drawing two five kilometer circles on the map with two points intercepted around the hotel and the mafia chief’s jail. Then Bryan instructed Kim when she was hiding in the closet shelved the weaponry metal suitcase, hiding from the mafia shooters, to carry two grenades and a handgun with her before left the hotel. Bryan instructed Kim to throw the two grenades on different spots for Bryan to locate the mafia jail with direction and distance from the hotel. Kim finally found out the chimney with white steaming released by Bryan, but the gangster from the mafia chief Murad have chased to catch up with Kim at a short range. However, Bryan required Kim to drop the gun into the chimney for him immediately. To be frankly, these two chasing plays and scenes in the movie Taken 2, look quite like that appeared in the 2003 Warner Bros. and Atari made Home Video game, Enter the Matrix, two different players appeared in apart places to have the chasing games separately.

After the movie, I have my lunch at the McDonald’s on the ninth floor of the Mega City Department Store. From the window of the ninth floor was the panoramic view of the New Taipei City Goverment Building Square and the New Taipei City Railroad Station. Across the New Taipei City Government Square was the elevated Bank of Panhsin Building, newly built. Besides that was the Stanford Building, beautiful white decoration on the roof top with the Standard Chartered Bank resided in. Behind that, was the building of National Tax Administration Banqiao Branch 2. These newly built buildings encircled all the New Taipei City Station Square on the center. A two-story porch extended from the New Taipei City Government Building, with tile and brick canopy concrete made and steel porch railings, from above it looks just like the docks in California or docks in the New York East River and just seeing in the movie. There happened to be observatory restaurants on each side of the docks included this McDonald’s on the ninth floor of Mega City Department Store. On the corner of the ninth floor next to the McDonald’s, was a restaurant called the Pumpkin Tomato, there hanged a white plastic skeleton on the wall as decoration. Very special decoration with deliberate design, the same style coincided with the statuary on same floor of Phantom of the Opera Boat Scene, with running water and bridge backdrop settings around the statuary. After lunch at the McDonald’s, I should hurry out of this and set out for the Taiwan Banciao District Court to counsel for October 18 of a district court writ, with the District Court sealed and the judge “Executive Writ” for “Ching Prosecute Savant 101 Yi(Court letter number)”, a Far Eastern Memorial Hospital mental evaluation decided by the district court judge. Forget all about this, in the observatory platform it’s really like World of Warcraft online game quest, report to Goldshire, it really can teach you to rest and relaxation.

This time, DB for once did not smile, determined to say good-bye to this world(World of Warcraft game. Because the prosecuting court plaintiff accused on April 2 in court that “The defendant was indulging himself in his own world.” That accusation should be taken as serious and apparently had accepted by the Taiwan Banciao District Court prosecutor and judge. Therefore, DB for once did not smile for this decision.)

DB, Oct. 16, 2012;
Translated on Oct. 17