Writers: Luc Besson & Robert Mark Kamen
Director: Olivier Megaton
*** THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS ***
A couple of years after the box-office success (not to mention massive disappointment) that was Taken 2 it comes as absolutely no surprise that tragedy magnet Bryan Mills (Neeson) is back to have yet another terrible series of events befall him and his family in, yes, Taken 3.
But what's this? Twenty minutes in and Liam Neeson hasn't broken anyone's neck, tortured some poor sod or participated in a destructive car chase. No, he's embroiled in various domestic issues involving his wife Lenore (Janssen) and daughter Kim (Grace). Lenore's having marital problems with Stuart (Dougray Scott) whilst still having feelings for ex-hubby Bryan, meanwhile Kim's got a bombshell of her own to drop but isn't sure how to tell her dad blah blah blah....is this Taken 3? Were they screening a TV movie by mistake that just happened to star the same actors?
Anyway, all of this soapy stuff is shattered ruthlessly when Bryan goes to meet Lenore at his place and finds her as brutally murdered as you can in a 12A movie, ie. not very. Trouble is, Bryan's picked up the knife that was used to do her in and now the cops have shown up. He's a crack security operative and yet he picks up a bloodstained knife from the floor? Ooookay...
Of course, Mills doesn't hang around to let the cops arrest him and with one bit of choppily-edited violence he's free to find out who really bumped off his ex-missus. Now, at this point the movie could have revelled in setting up a load of possible suspects for our hero to pursue, each one revealing a new and exciting twist that sent the plot in a totally unexpected direction as the truly complex nature of the events surrounding the murder unfolded. But no, this is a Taken movie, right? There's a very, very, VERY short list of characters who could be involved in the murky goings-on and yes, it's the exact person you think it's going to be.
That said, the simplistic nature of the plot could easily be forgiven if the action sequences were up to snuff. The original Taken wouldn't have won any awards for plotting and yet it was efficient, brutal, thoroughly entertaining stuff. I loved it. Sadly that isn't the case for its third outing. The fights are full of such quick cuts so you don't feel any sense of involvement whatsoever and the car chases are somehow lacking in excitement.
To me the whole film felt like it was just going through the motions, which is a shame because there's certainly some talent in front of the camera. Forest Whitaker can usually be relied upon to turn in a decent performance and he does so here, even though his detective is signified as deep-thinking by having him carry a chess piece around with him. The support's none-too-bad either, namely Leland Orser as one of Mills' security buddies and of course the lovely Famke Janssen as the ill-fated Lenore.
I guess I have to admit that any movie that chose to dispose of Famke Janssen in such an arbitrary manner would probably have fallen straight out of my good books but I resisted the temptation to scream "NO!" in a dramatic manner at her untimely demise and gave the rest of the film a fair chance. Unfortunately, Taken 3 doesn't satisfy in terms of thrills and I hope the tagline "It Ends Here" is true for this series. However, given the number of possible enemies Bryan Mills has made during his career in covert operations, I wouldn't bet on it.
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