Biyograficim
Takip: İstanbul

Taken 2

Movie · 2012 · 7 people

Takip: İstanbul is the Turkish title of Taken 2, a French action thriller from 2012. It continues the 2008 film Taken as the trilogy's second part. Olivier Megaton directed, and Luc Besson wrote the screenplay with Robert Mark Kamen and produced it. Opening in France and the United States in October 2012, it earned more than $376 million worldwide, the most of the trilogy, though critics were mostly unkind.

Liam Neeson returns as retired CIA officer Bryan Mills. The father of a man he killed while rescuing his daughter wants revenge. When the family travels to Istanbul, Mills's ex-wife (Famke Janssen) is abducted during her holiday, and Mills himself is seized soon after. His daughter Kim, played by Maggie Grace, takes an active part this time and helps him hunt down those who threaten the family one by one. The cast also includes Rade Šerbedžija, Leland Orser and Luke Grimes, alongside Turkish performers such as Cengiz Bozkurt, Hakan Karahan and Kevork Malikyan.

The film runs about 98 minutes. Most of the shooting took place in the city, with Balat, Kadıköy and Haydarpaşa among the locations used for key scenes. EuropaCorp released it in France and 20th Century Fox in the United States. The series continued with Taken 3, released on 9 January 2015.

DirectorOlivier Megaton
Production companyCanal+

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Cast

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Cengiz Bozkurt Cengiz Bozkurt Actor · 60 years old Hakan Karahan Hakan Karahan Actor · 66 years old Luran Ahmeti Luran Ahmeti Actor · died at 46 Aclan Büyüktürkoğlu Aclan Büyüktürkoğlu Actor · 60 years old Kevork Malikyan Kevork Malikyan Actor · 83 years old Özcan Özdemir Özcan Özdemir Actor · 39 years old Emre Melemez Emre Melemez Actor · 51 years old

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Through different eyes

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

Liam Neeson's Bryan Mills is back at work, and this time the stage is Istanbul. Kidnapping, pursuit, a father out for revenge: you know the formula, but it works. Its roughly 98 minutes move without dawdling. Kim taking an active part this time is a nice change too. Don't expect the surprise of the first film, but for an evening of tension it does more than enough.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Takip: İstanbul is the highest-grossing entry in the series, yet critics were mostly unkind, and it's easy to see why. Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen's script flips the first film's setup and repeats it: this time it's the ex-wife and Mills himself who are taken. In Olivier Megaton's hands the action puts a sense of speed ahead of clarity; the pace looks high, but the physical tension becomes hard to follow. A father seeking revenge for his son could have been an interesting moral mirror for Mills, but the film shows little interest in exploring that idea. Locations such as Balat, Kadıköy and Haydarpaşa add visual richness, yet Istanbul mostly remains a backdrop. What really holds the film up is Neeson's presence.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

How a foreign blockbuster sees Istanbul is a subject in its own right. In Takip: İstanbul the city appears generously, in locations stretching from Balat to Kadıköy and Haydarpaşa, but it is built mostly as a dangerous, maze-like backdrop. That is a familiar continuation of the exotic, menacing role Western cinema has long assigned to Eastern cities. Turkish performers such as Cengiz Bozkurt, Hakan Karahan and Kevork Malikyan add some local texture, yet the story is still told through the eyes of an American family on holiday. On the other hand, having these places on record as they looked in 2012 gives today's viewer a small archive of the city.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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