In Hollywood, you’re never too old for a big-screen renaissance. John Travolta’s 40th birthday was happy indeed – with an Oscar nomination for Pulp Fiction.

At the tender age of 56, striking Irish actor Liam Neeson unexpectedly reinvigorated his career as a tough-taking action man in the testosterone-fuelled thriller Taken.

The film, directed by Pierre Morel, gained a cult following for its wanton brutality, outrageous set pieces and the unstinting determination of the lead character, who famously promised kidnappers holding his daughter: “I will find you, and I will kill you.”

The old man with the fists of fury returns in Taken 2, which dispatches the same characters to Istanbul. Olivier Megaton sits in the director’s chair for the sequel and he delivers more slam-bang thrills than the first instalment, embracing the preposterousness of a centrepiece car sequence which sees the hero’s daughter, who has failed her driving test, perform high-speed manoeuvres through the winding streets of the Turkish metropolis.

A career beckons as a stunt woman.

Bryan (Neeson) continues to be protective of daughter Kim (Grace), whom he rescued from Albanian kidnappers and returned home safely to mother Lenore (Janssen). Little does the former agent realise that Murad (Rade Serbedzija), the father of one of the Albanian brutes he killed in the first film, has amassed a small army to abduct and torture Bryan and his loved ones.

“We will not rest until his blood flows into this very ground. We will have our revenge!” Murad defiantly tells his compatriots.

Taken 2 doesn’t take itself seriously. Neeson growls lines with menace, physically suffering for his low-brow art as he is beaten to a pulp. Janssen is the two-dimensional love interest and Grace clumsily fans the flames of a romantic reunion between her parents by telling Bryan: “When you guys met, I think the word she used was . . . magical!” Give me strength.

One star