UPDATED: New 'Taken 2' trailer, same old Liam Neeson

Posted Friday, August 31, 2012 at 11:18 AM Central
Last updated Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 11:05 AM Central

by John Couture

I'm not quite sure when it happened, but somewhere along the way, Liam Neeson went from respected dramatic actor to action star badass. Despite being 60 years old, he is currently at the peak of his action career.

Which of course means that in a decade, he'll be cast in The Expendables 6. Until then though, it's pretty obvious that he's got plenty of ass-kicking left in him.

Being an action star is a young man's game. Normally men half of Liam's age are the marquee action studs. Names like Chris Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy are today's action heroes while the guys we grew up with are desperately waiting for Sylvester Stallone to call and offer them a part in his AARP Action film series.

Heck, even Jeremy Renner is getting a bit long in the tooth to be a true action star at age 41. Yes, Jeremy Renner is 41 and I'm as shocked as you are about it.

But with Taken and the upcoming Taken 2, Neeson has taken over the crown of silver-haired action stud from Sean Connery, although with less gray hair thanks to "Just For Men" or the like.

I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed Taken and I'm looking forward to Taken 2. I thought the first trailer was everything that you could ask for in a teaser and the one below just continues in the same vein. It's clear that even at 60 Liam Neeson still has plenty of fight left in him.

That's good, because we can always use another good action star. Taken 2 is set to debut in theaters on October 5.

Yet another trailer

Well, I guess Liam Neeson doesn't mind shilling out everything he has for this sequel. Here's yet another slightly different trailer that dropped today.

This one even has an intro from Liam and hints at a missing scene. Intriguing.

And by searching for that hashtag, you reveal the following exclusive scene: