Brief Story Line
Few years after the events of the first movie, Dan Morgan (Mark Wahlberg - Play Dirty, The Union etc) had opened his own private security consultant, while his wife Jessica (Michelle Monaghan - Bad Monkey TV series, Echoes mini series etc) was working as atheltic coach. They were still living in Buffalo, Texas with their children Kyle (Van Crosby) who was in his senior year and their youngest child Max (Peter and Theodore Lindsey), but their oldest Nina (Zoe Colletti - Boo, Bitch TV series, A Boy Called Christmas etc) was now studying in London.
When Christmas was around the corner, Dan decided to go to London to celebrate it as a whole family while working on a security job for a large bank. Unfortunately everything went awry when Dan met with someone mysterious later on revealed to be Finn (Kit Harrington - Eternals, Game of Thrones TV series etc) who had devised a plan that would endanger the Morgan family. As they tried to escape the pursuit, the Morgans along with Nina's new boyfriend Omar (Reda Elazouar - Sex Education TV series season 4 etc) had to find ways to save themselves.
So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this film.
End of Brief Story Line
Well just like in the original movie, I had quite a good time seeing this and occassionally laughed a bit on some of the scenes. It was still fun watching the whole family dynamics and their closeness, including the addition of Max who was no longer a baby (portrayed nicely by the young Lindsey twins in their debut). Good thing they managed to keep the original cast so the children were still played by same people.
However, aside from the fun of watching the comedy and the action that was still pretty well executed (those parkour moves were pretty awesome, although it was quite clear they were not done by Mark Wahlberg), I thought in term of story it was a bit more absurd. Just like in the original, the plot was predictable, which I did not have problem with but some of them were indeed a bit extreme. But as a whole, it was quite enjoyable, especially seeing the lovely Christmas decorations in London and in Paris.
Aside from the main cast above, there was the addition of Sidse Babett Knudsen (Inferno, Borgen TV series etc) as Dan's former associate Svetlana and Sanjeev Bhaskar (Yesterday, The Kumars at No. 42 TV series etc) as Vikram the butler. The film itself was still directed by Simon Cellan Jones who in between directing the first movie, also directed another Mark Wahlberg starrer Arthur the King that was better received by critics than this. Yes, this sequel was getting an even lower score than the original which was pretty sad and weird, considering it was not that bad and quite entertaining. Regardless though audience seemed Okay with it as the movie made it to the top chart of AppleTV+ in lots of countries. I guess the Christmas theme and family vacation was something that people looked forward to.
In the end this was an action comedy movie just for fun. It was light with no complicated plot and got some cool action sequence (that London bus tour scene was really good to my opinion). It was rated for PG-13 which meant there was nothing too violent here and certainly fitting for Christmas themed film. So if you like the first film, then I think you would still enjoy this sequel like I did. It also had a nice ending and only 107 minutes duration, pretty short compared to the original that was almost 2 hours. There was brief scene after the end credit started but not a clear indication of another sequel. Although I strongly believe there would likely be a third one to complete trilogy, if it continued to be a hit. If you are a strict believer of professional critics though, then likely you would not like this one. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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