Taken 3

Liam Neeson may be an actor, an actor with a “particular set of skills,” some of
which entertain audiences around the world with action packed thrills on the big
screen. Was he able to do it again in his latest film Taken 3?

The film centers around Bryan Mill’s (Neeson) ex wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and
her relationship problems with Stuart (Dougray Scott). She seeks comfort in Mills
and though he remains in love with Lenore, he would rather she figure things out
in her marriage before anything happens between them. Stuart begins to be
suspicious of the relationship between the two and decides to ask Mills to stay
away from Lenore while they work things out. Mills receives a text the following
day asking him to meet her at his place for a shoulder tho cry on. Unfortunately
upon arriving with breakfast, he discovers her lifeless body in his bed. Before
he had a moment to take everything in, the police barge in and try to arrest him
for the murder. In true Mill’s fashion, he is able to escape though only steps
behind is inspector Dotzler (Forest Whitaker) who is trying to piece together
every clue that seemingly points away from Bryan Mills as the culprit. Let us not
forget about his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) who was the victim in the first film
and might just be in this film.

My expectations weren’t high for this installment of Taken. Some may agree with me
that as with most films that spawn sequels, the first film is usually the best. As
a huge fan of the first Taken I knew that the third one, just like the second one
would be worth seeing at least once but that would probably it. This film had far
less action than its predecessors which is a little strange if you ask me. Now
don’t get me wrong, Liam Neesen is an amazing actor in this genre however
sometimes that really isn’t enough. An actor can only do so much with what they
are given. In his case it might have been the script. The editing was a bit choppy
and the cinematography a bit sloppy.

In the case of this film, I would’ve expected a little bit more. I think it would
be wise to leave this film as the last and final one. I think that they have
milked this cow dry. As I have stated above, this film is worth seeing at least
once although you may want to leave it up to redbox and skip theatre prices.

3/5

Second review by Ryan Guerra

It ends here, is the slogan for this film. We can only hope it’s true. This time nothing is actually taken,

other than your money. This film is just more of the same, only worse.

Liam Neeson is back as a bad ass, only this time he seems too old and moves slow that it is unbelievable.

Every time he runs, it looks like he is trying not to break a hip and yet the young people chasing him,

conveniently never seem to catch him. Maggie Grace is still the annoying daughter but at least her

character is finally closer to her age. And as usual, Famke Janssen has limited screen time as Neeson’s

ex-wife, before she is murdered by Russian goons who attempt to frame Neeson for her murder.

Those who are looking for an action film and fans of the series will be disappointed as this film really

does not have that much action. The scenes that do have action are short and in several cases over the

top more than usually for this film series. There is even the big climax ending, which is not actually the

ending.

The only bright spot for this film is that Neeson uses his ex-cia buddies to help him out which is long

overdue in this series. Sadly they are still underutilized. Even Forest Whitaker, who is the detective

trying to catch Neeson is not given much to do, other than talk into a phone several times and look

perplexed.

In the end, I hope this series ends here. This film introduces nothing new. And the best things it tries to

recapture about the previous films in the series are not recaptured well. The actors all appear in this film

in order to grab a pay check, which leads to a forgettable and unenjoyably film.

1 star out of 5