Well kudos to Taken 2, it was speculated in this very spot last week that the poor word of mouth and reviews would put a big dip into the action sequel’s take this weekend. The wrongness is strong with this one.

The Liam Neeson punch-fest held off the critical darling Argo for the top spot yet again in the box office trenches. The film brought in an estimated $22.5 Million over the three-day weekend with a relatively healthy dip of only 54.6%. For an R-rated action film with a built-in audience who presumably all went and saw it the first weekend, that drop is pretty strong.

Argo came up in second, with a still very respectable $20 Million weekend. The Affleck directed ‘incredible true story’ did about as well as a movie of this nature can reasonably expect to do, and with the heaps and heaps of love and positive word of mouth this film is getting it should play well for a few more weeks.

The consensus seems to be that Taken 2 is a lesser version of its predecessor, but in this day and age an opening weekend has as much to do with the reception of the last film than anything else. Which ends up being a very good industry trend for the Liam Neeson sequel as the movie racked in one of the biggest October openings ever.

Coming in at a cool $50 million, Taken 2 easily won this weekend’s box office tussle. The reviews and word of mouth have not been kind to the film, so it might have a big drop off next weekend, but at this point in time the movie is a win. If it some how finds some minimal legs amid the poor word of mouth, the movie can still get over $100 million and end up in the hit category.

Hotel Transylvania held very well to come into second place with $26+ million over the weekend. The success of Transylvania should be exciting to any one who claims to be a true fan of animation despite the celebrity-centric casting. The movie was the directorial debut of Genndy Tartakovsky, the mastermind behind Samurai Jack, Dexter’s Laboratory and Star Wars: Clone Wars. With this film a hit hopefully we will be seeing much more from this animation great.

Let’s just stipulate for the record that Liam Neeson is a badass. This is even more impressive given the fact that Neeson is 60 years old, and age when most people are starting to take it easy.

Neeson apparently didn’t get that memo because he’s back with yet another action extravaganza. This time around it’s the sequel to his previous hit Taken. The film in question is, of course, Taken 2.

There’s a new trailer for Taken 2 out now and we’ve got it for you after the break. In the new film the bad guys turn the tables and come after Neeson’s character’s family, again played by Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen.

Olivier Megaton takes over directing duties from original helmer Pierre Morel. Fox releases the sequel October 5.

We don’t need to set this up or provide any commentary. All you need to know is that Liam Neeson kicks ass and takes lots of names and then goes and kicks those people’s assess too.

In short, he’s a badass. And no, there’s no wolves . . . at least not yet.

Enjoy the new Taken 2 trailer after the break. Look for the whole movie in theaters on October 5th.

Taken is one of those films that just works in every way. From concept, to casting, all the way to the score and even the title, it just all works so very well. Good movies do not go unsequelized in this day and age so of course Taken 2 is coming, and the first UK poster has just hit the web.

The first film revolved around Liam Neeson’s character going after his kidnapped daughter, there was some concern that the sequel might just be some sort of re-hash on the original concept. Based on the poster’s tagline we might be seeing a far more interesting take on the idea:

First they took his daughter. Now they’re coming for him.

It would have been really easy, and lazy, for the writers to have the baddies from the first film exact their revenge by taking more members of Neeson’s family. It makes much more sense to see those baddies go directly after Neeson himself.

As the film is called Taken 2, I’m sure there will be some layer of kidnapping somewhere in the story, but if the focus is less on Neeson using his skills to retrieve another loved one and more on him being the target we could be a in for a quality action sequel on the way.

Take a look at the full UK poster after the jump.

If you loved the nonstop action that Liam Neeson and Luc Besson brought us back in 2008 with Taken, then you should get ready now that the excellent Rade Sherbedgia (best known in everything from 24 to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1) is being cast as the film’s major villain for Neeson to use his “particular set of skills” on. Here’s the scoop from THR:

Sherbedgia will play Murad, the father of a kidnapper slain by Bryan Mills (Neeson) in the first film. Murad is described as a vengeful man who gives orders and doesn’t take them. When Murad takes Mills and his wife hostage, their daughter is enlisted to help save them.

Sherbedgia will next star in Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, which will be released in December. Sherbedgia’s credits include Batman Begins, Mission: Impossible II and a memorable turn as Boris “The Blade” Yurinov in Snatch.

When you think of hot female assassins/badasses, who comes to mind? For me it’s a cross between Anne Parillaud in the original La Femme Nikita, Uma Thurman’s The Bride in Kill Bill, Devon Aoki as Miho in Sin City and Yvonne Strahovski as Sarah in Chuck.

Put all those together and that would be a potent mix indeed. Now, it seems, we may be able to add Zoe Saldana to that mix.

Why? Well today, Sony Pictures has released a trailer for Colombiana, which stars Saldana as a stone-cold female assassin. To illustrate the point, we’ve got the trailer for the film to share with you.

Colombiana was written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen and directed by Olivier Megaton (who has a perfect name for an action director, don’t you think?) Check out the trailer after the jump.

And no, that pic above is not from the movie. It’s from The Losers, but I like it — and so should you.

Who’s your favorite female baddass?