Taken 2 (Blu-ray)

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Synopsis (courtesy of imdb.com):

Bryan Mills, the retired CIA agent, stopped at nothing to save his daughter Kim from Albanian kidnappers. The father of one of the kidnappers has sworn revenge and takes Bryan and his wife hostage during their family vacation in Istanbul. Bryan enlists his daughter to help them escape.

My Take:

Have you watched the first “Taken“? If the answer is yes and you don’t like it, move on. There is nothing to see here. If you’ve seen the first one and like it, then there is a chance that you’ll like this one.

The only implausible part is that the same bad thing happen to the same good guy twice. If I’ve never been in a similar situation as the main character, the premise will be too implausible to digest. No, I’m not saying that members of my family have been kidnapped nor am I a skilled fighter of any kind. On the other hand, how many of you can claim that every CES, my first bag I received have always been torn for since my first CES ever?  How many of you can claim that everytime I stayed at any hotel I always have to change room because there is always something majorly wrong with the first room… All 15 times a year for God knows for the past how many years in a row?

That said, you can tell that Taken 2 could’ve been titled as “Taken 2: The Retelling of Taken“.

What I find to be annoying from this movie is the extra digital grain added, unlimited unnecessary shaky-cam sequences, and so-so audio. Even during its theatrical presentation in Dolby Atmos, this movie didn’t deliver the demo audio quality I expect from this type of movie.

So this time I’m going to cut my review short. There is nothing to report. So-so picture quality, so-so sound quality which makes this overall movie presentation to be forgettable and not worth the price of the admission.  Still, a good rental but not something you’ll want to keep.

Equipment used for this review:
Anthem MRX-700 Receiver
Grandviewscreen 96” 21:9 matte-white 1.0-gain screen
Kimber Kable 19e HDMI cables
PSB Century 300i (front and surround speakers)
PSB Image C5 (centre speaker)
PSB Subseries 300 (subwoofer)
Panasonic PT-AE7000U projector
Pioneer BDP-62FD BD player
Vermouth Black Curse speaker wires
Viewing room is as per THX and SMPTE recommendation with 45-degree Field of View

Audio: 6/10
Video: 6/10
Storyline: 5/10

Studio and Year: 20th Century Fox – 2012
MPAA Rating: PG-13/Unrated
Feature running time: 92/98 minutes
Genre: Action

Disc Format: BD-50
Encoding: AVC (MPEG-4)
Video Aspect: 2.39:1
Resolution: 1080p/24

Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio, English/French/Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Rade Sherbedgia

Directed by: Olivier Megaton
Music by: Nathaniel Mechaly
Written by: Luc Besson & Robert Mark Kamen
Region Code: A

Blu-ray Disc release Date: January 15, 2013

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