Review #870: 'Taken 3' (2014)

Taken 3's poster contains what is one of the most reassuring taglines in cinema history - "It all ends here". After voicing doubts over the series' continuity in 2012 following Taken 2, Liam Neeson was convinced by producer Luc Besson and writer Robert Mark Kamen to return to the role of former covert operative Bryan Mills, the overbearing father with skills of a particular kind, once more. The film-makers seem to have learnt their lesson following the previous instalment - which did little more than repeat the events of the first film only with roles reversed - and have changed the formula. Yet, although nobody is 'taken' this time around and Mills faces his foes on home soil, due to sheer bad writing and poor direction, this is quite possibly the worst of the lot.

After discovering she is pregnant, Kim (Maggie Grace) is visited by her father Bryan, who brings an early birthday present. Knowing her father has a gift for overreacting and extreme dramatics, she decides to keep the news a secret. Later, Bryan receives a visit from his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen), who confesses that her marriage to Stuart (Dougray Scott, replacing Xander Berkeley from the first film) is on the rocks, and that she occasionally fantasises about being with Bryan. They decide not to act upon their feelings until Lenore's marital situation is resolved. Bryan is later asked by Stuart to back off as he tries to save his marriage, to which Bryan awkwardly agrees. But after receiving a text from Lenore asking to meet up for bagels, Bryan returns home to (spoilers!) find his ex-wife murdered, and the police closing in around him.

Taking a leaf out of the Fast and the Furious franchise's book, Taken 3 emphasises the themes of the importance and the fragility of family, and even brings Bryan's ex-CIA friends, played by series regulars Leland Orser, David Warshofsky and Jon Gries, to the fore to give the film a heist-y feel. But this requires a subtler brand of film-making, something that Olivier Megaton, director of Transporter 3 (2008) and Colombiana (2011), does not possess the talent to pull off. Everything is played out with all the complexity and grace of a soap opera, as Bryan plods along in a plot that doesn't seem to know where it's going, while the inept police on his trail are routinely battered and out-manoeuvred and lead investigator Franck Dotzler (Forest Whitaker) watches in awe like a child seeing Father Christmas.

As the police never prove to be much of a threat at all, there's no real urgency or suspense to Bryan's innocent-man-on-the-run shtick, and no hint at any form of meaningful relationship forming between he and Dotzler. In fact, this may be the redundant role of Whitaker's career. The dodgy racial stereotypes are present again as ex-Spetsnaz agent Oleg Malankov (Sam Spruell) is thrown into the mix. We know he's Russian because he has ugly tattoo's, wears a gold chain around his neck with an open collar, and sits in hot tubs with each arm around a sexy lady. Megaton hasn't learnt his lesson from Taken 2, so the action scenes are again incoherent and blurred, inducing sea-sickness rather than thrills. There's very little to recommend about this movie at all, apart from perhaps (again) Neeson's performance. Hopefully Taken 3 has killed the franchise for good, and Neeson can move onto projects more befitting his own particular set of skills.


Directed by: Olivier Megaton
Starring: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace, Dougray Scott, Sam Spruell
Country: France

Rating: *

Tom Gillespie