Taken 3
Director: Oliver Megaton
Starring: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace
109 mins; Class 12;
KRS Releasing Ltd

With a combined box office of €280 million between them, it was inevitable that Taken and Taken 2 would be given a third sequel.

And here it is, with Liam Neeson returning to the franchise that gave birth to his action hero status.

After spending the first film looking for his daughter, who was taken by human traffickers, and the second offering taken himself with his ex-wife, Neeson’s Bryan Mills clearly needs a break.

He doesn’t get it though, for Taken 3 finds him trying to get his life in order, still trying to bond with his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) – despite all they have been through – and rekindling the friendship with his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen).

Suddenly, someone very close to him is killed, and, what do you know, Mills himself is implicated in the murder.

So off he goes on the run to seek revenge and justice while yet again trying to protect Kim, with the police in hot pursuit.

The action remains rooted in Los Angeles this time around, and what does work in the film’s favour is that the usually overblown action is toned down somewhat providing some slick scenes, including an extended car chase which leaves many vehicles in a state of destruction on the LA freeway (with no concern for the many victims) and a showdown between a private jet and a Porsche.

The same mindless nonsense as the first two films

In the meantime Mills punches his way through the story with consummate ease – often hapless police officers are those who bear the brunt of his rage – while surviving one implausible scenario after another unscathed.

It’s the same mindless nonsense which characterised the first two films, made all the more bland for the overtly simplistic plot.

There is also the unforgivable lapse of telegraphing who the real bad guy is from the get-go, due to some really obvious shifty acting and the complete lack of personality overall given to the characters.

Neeson can once more count on his formidable physical presence and natural charisma, but there is little to the character that makes him anything more than an angry man on the run.

Janssen is used too little, which is a shame, the few scenes she shares with Neeson hinting at the chemistry between the two. Grace’s Kim sits around and cries a lot.

Forest Whitaker’s Detective Dotzler plays with an elastic band and frowns a lot – and seemingly solves the case from the start (which begs the question – why didn’t he speak up sooner and avoid all the mayhem his pursuit of Mills caused?). Dougray Scott is a little one-dimensional as Lenore’s jealous current husband with a secret, while Sam Spruell plays the obligatory Russian villain Oleg Malankov.

Much like the second in the series, there is really nothing you can take home from this, for there is little to distinguish it from what has gone before in order to squeeze some more money out of the franchise.

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