Taken 3

Taken 3 (2014)

11% on Rotten Tomatoes, out of 105 reviews

Runtime: I saw the unrated version, which was 115 minutes

Directed by: The hack known as Olivier Megaton

Starring: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace, Dougray Scott, Famke Janssen

From: 20th Century Fox

Oh Lord, this movie... it's even worse than Taken 2. I explain why below: 

It was not the plan to watch Taken 2 and then immediately thereafter this piece of crap, but I was with someone last night and this is what they wanted to do, so that is what happened. I had never seen any version of 3 before; once I saw that the director would be the same, I knew to give it a pass. Finally, I saw the unrated version and it made me wish I could watch 2 again, it was so bad.

To steal a thought from someone else, this movie is pretty much The Fugitive remade; the ex-wife of Bryan Mills is murdered and it's set up to appear that he did it, so he's on the run from the cops while trying to avoid a group of people after him, led by a wise man. In this case, Liam Neeson has to avoid Forest Whitaker, who I guess is wise because he doesn't underestimate Mills and he has some odd tics involving such things as a chess piece and rubber bands. I know, “great” characterization, right? Then again, I knew I was in trouble in the first act when we got several moments straight out of a sitcom happen between Bryan and his daughter Kim, who is at least college aged now and is closer in age to Maggie Grace.

The story is complete nonsense; it's drivel and they try to go the convoluted route but there are few surprises, if any at all. Russian gangsters factor into the plot and while that sort of thing is sadly more relevant now than it was a few years ago, that does not make this retroactively better. It's incredibly dumb and I'd rather not say more about the plot. To my disappointment, not only did director Olivier Megaton return, he actually regressed as an action director. The quick cutting and shaky-cam was even worse than in 2, sapping all the fun out of the action scenes.

The actors don't really care, you can't enjoy the action and the plot was poppycock, where Mills can cause an incredible amount of collateral damage, to little repercussions. Let's hope Neeson is literally too old for this shit and we never get a Taken 4 (Please, No More).