Review: Taken 3

In the third film about ex-CIA guy Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), he finds himself on the run from cops (led by Forest Whitaker) after being framed for the murder of someone close to him. Now it’s up to Mills to evade capture, figure out who the real killer is, and bring them to justice, possibly his own ‘specially skilled’ brand. Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen reprise their roles as Kim and Lenore, while Dougray Scott steps into the role of Lenore’s spouse Stuart, previously played by Xander Berkeley. Sam Spruell plays a Russian mobster, whilst Don Harvey and Dylan Bruno play idiot cops. Leland Orser, Jon Gries, and a returning David Warshofsky are back as Mills’ CIA buddies.

 

Director Olivier Megaton (“Taken 2”) and screenwriters Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen (the writers of the previous two “Taken” films) correct the course of the ship somewhat after the disastrous “Taken 2” with this 2015 outing. The third, longest, and hopefully last film in the series, this one benefits from more competently shot action, and ripping off a superior story for the most part (“The Fugitive”). I was glad that no one got ‘Taken’ in the kidnapping sense in this one (Neeson apparently wouldn’t sign on unless no one was kidnapped this time), but it’s still just watchable at best for me.

 

We don’t start well, with Maggie Grace yet again playing a character a lot younger than she really (and clearly) is. This time around, she’s graduated from ‘teenager hiding her boyfriend from her dad’ to ‘hiding a possible pregnancy from her dad’. For crying out loud, the actress is in her 30s. Visibly. Also, after seemingly reconciling in the previous film, Liam Neeson and Famke Janssen here are amicable, but not together. Weird. On the plus side, whilst Forest Whitaker is capable of being one of the very best or very worst character actors depending on the day, he’s rock-solid here in a film and role that is clearly beneath him. I mean, it’s such an underdeveloped character, you get the feeling that he’s meant to be an expert cop, but it’s barely dealt with and it plays more like ‘not as dumb as the other dweebs on the force’. His character is surrounded by the biggest Boobs in Blue since the entire cast of the “Police Academy” franchise. These guys are complete dunderheads for the most part, and acting like they’re in a Tony Scott film (think “Enemy of the State”, only not nearly as good) by eavesdropping on a funeral is silly and out-of-place here.

 

It’s probably on about the same level as the first film, but with one villain revealed early on (and due to the plot structure, sidelined for much of the film) and another link in the chain completely obvious from the actor’s first scene (poor direction of the actor in question there), suspense is completely lacking. A big step up in quality from the second film, but that says more about how poor that film was, because this film, like the first film is just tolerable at best. Obviously fans of this kind of thing will want to bump the rating up a little higher. It’s not bad, I guess.

 

Rating: C+