Taken 2 (2012)

Kim Mills tosses grenades across the rooftops of Istanbul so her dad can count the seconds until each boom and figure out where he is. That’s a real plot point, and it’s the most fun idea here. The rest is an action movie that chops every fight into confetti, so you hear punches more than you see them. The villains are a pack of angry relatives with zero personality between them. Famke Janssen spends most of the movie tied up and out of it. Liam Neeson still has the voice, and when he calmly talks Kim through a getaway over the phone, you remember why the first one worked. Maggie Grace gets the best bit, a young driver who hasn’t passed her test steering a cab through narrow streets while her dad barks directions. It made $376.2 million worldwide, and critics gave it 22%. A 3.6 because a couple of goofy ideas can’t hide how tired it all feels. $1,246 says you hear fireworks this summer and start counting the seconds to figure out how far away they are.

What works: The grenade-counting idea and Kim’s frantic taxi drive are goofy fun, and Neeson still sells the calm-dad-on-the-phone routine.

What doesn’t: The fights are edited so choppily you can barely follow them, and the villains and story are paper thin.

Who it’s for: Fans of the first Taken who just want to hear Liam Neeson be stern in a new city.