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

Review #869: 'Taken 2' (2012)

Pierre Morel's Taken (2008), a tough, disturbingly xenophobic thriller in which Liam Neeson's grizzled former CIA operative Bryan Mills took down a gang of sleazy criminals in Paris, was hilariously bad. But, in its defence, it was at least hilarious, etching Mills and his 'particular set of skills' into action lore. Taken was a surprise box-office success, igniting the recent wave of codgers-dealing-out-some-old-school-brutality films which the likes of Denzel Washington, Kevin Costner and Sean Penn have embraced to varying success, and proving that audiences still have a thirst for that kind of thing.

So inevitably came the sequel, and the producers cannot be blamed for trying to squeeze their new franchise for every penny it's worth before the genre naturally reverts back to straight-to-DVD. What they, as well as the writers and director (franchise-newcomer Olivier Megaton - no, not the infamous Decepticon, though he may have done a better job), can be blamed for, is for putting the audience through the same exact experience again, only without the originality (I use that term loosely) or a coherent action scene. There's plenty of running, punching, kicking, shooting, stabbing etc., but Megaton is so busy waving his camera around and cutting every second that we are left relatively clueless about what is going on, or who anybody is.

Not that this matters - unless it's Mills, his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) or his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) - then they're toast, especially if they have thick stubble and are wearing a leather jacket. A gang of Turkish mobsters led by Murad (go-to Eurosleaze Rade Serbedzija) vow vengeance for their brothers and sons who died at the hands of Mills during the events of the first film. After completing a routine security operation in Istanbul, Mills is joined by his ex-wife and daughter for some family time. Only, Mills and Lenore are 'taken', leaving Kim alone to locate her father so he can do what he does best and unleash his special skills on the scumbags.

Simply recycling what came before is unforgivable in itself, but going about it in such bland, formulaic and increasingly ridiculous ways make the experience even more torturous. The movie has one simple message - America good, the rest of the world bad. L.A. is shot in glorious sunshine amongst the safety of middle-to-upper class suburbia, while Istanbul consists of dingy alleyways and overweight men puffing cigarettes in cockroach-infested rooms. This casual xenophobia may have waved somewhat if the film delivered any thrills at all, but it doesn't, and fizzles out with a weak climax. Neeson somehow manages to come away from it all unscathed again (and with his wallet no doubt heavier), but his ability to make lines such as "when a dog has a bone, the last thing you want to do is try and take it from him," sound like Oscar-bait does not save Taken 2 from complete disaster.


Directed by: Olivier Megaton
Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Rade Serbedzija, Luke Grimes
Country: France

Rating: *

Tom Gillespie

Review #746: 'X-Men: The Last Stand' (2006)

Back in 2006, it seemed like Brett Ratner's third instalment of the X-Men saga was a textbook way to kill a lucrative franchise. The Last Stand kept the satirical undertones of the previous two, and even introduced some new, interesting ones. It also had the biggest set-pieces yet, climaxing in a mutant brawl on Alcatraz that pits the saga's big bad Magneto (Ian McKellen) and his army of cronies against an earnest and inexperienced X-Men led by Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Storm (Halle Berry). However, gone was the love injected into the franchise by Bryan Singer, and gone was any form of coherency and care. But it seems that The Last Stand was not the franchise-killer many envisioned, and, now that Days of Future Past (2014) has apparently eradicated it from the time-line, it is little but a dark blip in an overall successful series of movies.

Horrified by the announcement of a new mutant 'cure', developed from a power-draining mutant child named Jimmy (Cameron Bright), Magneto reforms his Brotherhood of Mutants and sets out kill the boy. Sensing trouble brewing, Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) enlists the help of former student and current Secretary of Mutant Affairs for the U.S. Cabinet Dr. Hank McCoy (Kelsey Grammer), also known as Beast. After disappearing at the end of the previous film, Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) resurfaces but re-born as the Phoenix, a mutant fuelled by rage and unbelievable power. When Xavier fails to subdue her mind, Jean allies herself with Magneto, whose army is growing steadily stronger.

The X-Men movies have always succeeded in channelling larger issues such as segregation and racism through the eternal battle between mutants and humans, and if The Last Stand is successful at anything at all, it's in bringing to mind the many differences people are born with, and how these 'afflictions' damage their ability to fit into regular society. Naturally, the issue will divide those affected into those who have fully accepted and embrace how they were born, and those who are eager to slot nicely into the mainstream. The cure offered in the movie also comes with a choice. Magneto sees this as an affront to mutants, who he feels are the next natural step in evolution. Yet Rogue (Anna Paquin), cursed with being unable to come into human contact with anyone, sees it as a way to finally end her pain.

But this is not enough to save The Last Stand from being a complete mess. The two previous movies managed to keep enough of a hold on it's massive ensemble to still tell a decent story. The Last Stand introduces a ridiculous amount of new mutants, from the impressive but little-seen Angel (Ben Foster), whose screen-time betrays his position on the poster, to the ridiculous abomination that is Juggernaut (Vinnie Jones), a wafer-thin villain whose induces cringing every time he opens his mouth. The plot is little more than a way to get the goodies fighting the baddies, and lazy plot-holes and inexplicable tactics on both sides riddle what is an incredibly dull and simplistic climax.

The development of Jean Grey into Phoenix, one of the key X-Men plot threads beloved to fans, admittedly allows for the odd visually spectacular set-piece, but on the whole is a massive let-down. Janssen is perfectly fine in the role, convincing as a seductive yet extremely dangerous mutant capable of God-like powers, but is seriously underwritten. And it's this aspect that really sums up The Last Stand - careless, scattershot, and insulting to its loyal fans. It seems to care far more about how much money the movie can put into it's wallet than creating anything of artistic merit. As said before, the film is such a mess that Bryan Singer had to find a way to quite rightly delete it from the X-Men timeline, and that sums up this pap better than I could ever dream of.


Directed by: Brett Ratner
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Famke Janssen, Kelsey Grammer, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Anna Paquin
Country: Canada/USA/UK

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #744: 'X2' (2003)

Seemingly using the first film to practice big-budget movie-making, Bryan Singer followed the mediocre X-Men (2000) with X2 (one of many dodgy titles attributed to the film), a balls-out, mutant mash-up full of genuine characters focus, an intriguing storyline, and set-pieces worthy of the money it earned. In fact, the opening scene, which depicts newcomer Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), a mutant with a forked tail and the ability to teleport, attack a small army of helpless government agents to get through to the President, blows anything the first film had to offer right out of the water.

With mutant antagonist Magneto (Ian McKellen) imprisoned in a plastic cell, Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) is focusing his time on helping the maturing students at his school for gifted youngsters. He has sent Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) to Alkali Lake, in the hope of helping him discover more about his past, but he finds nothing but an abandoned military base. After the attack on the President, government operative William Stryker (Brian Cox) leads an attack on the unsuspecting Xavier's school, capturing Xavier and Cyclops (James Marsden) in order to strengthen his mysterious plans.

The plot summary is as compressed as can be, as, like the first film, X2 has a lot of big personalities with big, special powers with their own individual stories to tell to cram into a two-hour film. Although there are mutants with far more interesting powers and greater physical potential, the focus remains on the fan-favourite Wolverine. It's Jackman's enigmatic performance that makes him so easily likeable, and he is finally allowed to roam free here. There are no soft fights where nobody dies as in X-Men; Wolverine massacres many of Stryker's men during the attack on the school. When he first drives his claws into an agent who makes the mistake of firing on him, it is the first of many air-punching moments throughout the film.

It's hard to fathom a threat that could actually make a dent in a race of people with such unbelievable powers, so Stryker, a man with no liking for mutants but a fascination with harnessing their powers, has found a way to subdue them. Seeing a mutant like Magneto so helpless is oddly affecting, so, after his spectacular prison break-out, he becomes a sort of anti-hero, doing the kind of dirty work Xavier would not lower himself to. But ultimately, it's the Xavier-Magneto good vs. evil fight that remains the most fascinating, and even with Stryker playing the main villain, Magneto is far from forgotten and has plans to bend Stryker's actions to his own personal gain.

It's a shame then that X2 marks the high-point of the series. There is now a remarkable 7 instalments set in the X-universe, and although X-Men: First Class (2011) injected some life back in the series, and hopes are high for the new X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), none have come close to the kind of energy and invention of this. Though you could complain about the lack of a coherent narrative, and that some of the minor characters are left out to dry, X2 is a near-perfect superhero movie, and is still Marvel's greatest achievement. And with almost 15 years of men in tights and capes, that is high praise indeed.


Directed by: Bryan Singer
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Brian Cox, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn, Alan Cumming
Country: Canada/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #743: 'X-Men' (2000)

It's hard to believe that back in 2000, Marvel's first crack at creating a superhero universe on the big screen, X-Men, was a near perfect summer movie. 14 years on, and the cracks are as clear as day in Bryan Singer's hesitant and rather tame blockbuster. Don't get me wrong, X-Men still has plenty to enjoy, but the meatier, more confident recent efforts such as Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy and Marvel's own Iron Man (2008) and Thor (2011), as well as the vastly superior sequel two years later, form a rather large shadow over Professor X and his pupils' first outing.

In the near future, evolution has taken a huge leap forward, creating 'mutants' - humans with special powers and abilities that defy anything science has seen before. Tensions between humans and mutants is at an all-time high, with the idea of mutant cataloguing being passed around by Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison), despite the efforts of telepaths Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). Mutant Magneto (Ian McKellen), a Holocaust survivor with the ability to control anything magnetic, has different ideas, and plans to induce mutation on world leaders gathering on Ellis Island.

As the machine, powered by magnetics, could easily kill him, Magneto seeks Rogue (Anna Paquin), a young girl with the ability to temporarily steal a mutant's power. Having just met Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), a beast of a man with a skeleton covered in an indestructible metal, which he can shoot out like claws, and an uncanny healing ability, Rogue's abduction fails and is foiled by Storm (Halle Berry) and Cyclops (James Marsden). They end up in Professor Xavier's school for gifted children, where Wolverine learns about mutant struggle and falls in love with the powerful Jean Grey.

With a film this packed with personalities and powers, it's only natural that it loses it's grip on a lot of its characters. Sensibly, the main focus is on Wolverine, who has always been the most interesting X-Man, and is perfectly played by Jackman, a performance that made him a huge star. The rest of the characters, with the exception of Professor X and Magneto, do little but fall flat. They either suffer because their powers aren't particularly interesting, or spend the duration of the film using what little dialogue they have to explain who they are and what they can do. The movie also has one of the worst lines in cinema history, uttered by Storm. You'll know it when you hear it.

For all its lack of ambition and absence of any real set-pieces, X-Men is still the first of its kind. Refusing to give in to the idea of comic books being light, colourful and mainly for kids (which was still the general idea back in 2000), the opening scene depicting a young Magneto in a concentration camp ensures this is something that should be taken seriously, yet still enjoyed. Singer grew in confidence and made X2 two years later, which is still considered by myself and many others to be one of the best superhero movies ever made. X2 showed that the vast ensemble can be given room to breathe, and had the set-pieces to match, and in hindsight, makes X-Men a much tamer, yet still very entertaining, animal.


Directed by: Bryan Singer
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Bruce Davison, Rebecca Romijn
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #676: 'The Wolverine' (2013)

After one failed origin story with the dismal X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), Hugh Jackman's short-tempered Logan AKA Wolverine is given another chance at a stand alone movie. With the X-Men movies generally hit-and-miss, mainly due to an over-abundance of mutants, director James Mangold has taken the story into unfamiliar territory. There's no army of mutants baddies for the mutton-chopped hero to slice apart, nor is he held back and forced into the background by his fellow X-Men. The Wolverine takes us and Wolverine to a different continent entirely, only to find he even has enemies in Japan.

Tortured by the death of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), Logan (Hugh Jackman) is long-haired and bearded and hiding out in Yukon, Canada. After an incident in a local bar, he is befriended by the samurai sword-wielding Yukio (Rila Fukushima) who has been sent by an old friend to recruit Wolverine. The old friend is Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi), a Japanese soldier rescued by Logan during the bombing of Nagasaki in 1945. Yashida is on the verge of death, and in his search for elongating his life, wants to transfer Logan's healing abilities into his own body. When Logan refuses, Yashida passes the following day, only for the funeral to be attacked by yakuza gangsters looking to kidnap Yashida's granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto) and heir to his billion-dollar company.

It's a flimsy plot to say the least, and not one that successful, multi-million dollar blockbusters are founded on. And here lies the biggest problem for The Wolverine, as although a change of pace and setting is always welcome, there's not much happening on screen for Logan to sink his claws into. The decision to move the action to the neon-lit Japan is an interesting one, but doesn't seem to serve any other purpose than to allow for some admittedly gorgeous-looking set-pieces, and to introduce a giant samurai robot for Logan to bash around. Lightly comic scenes of cultural differences are amusing, but seem out of place considering that Logan is repeatedly told he is a ronin, a samurai without a master.

With Logan seemingly invinsible, The Wolverine does the thing that most superhero movies do nowadays which is to strip him of his powers. With Batman battered and imprisoned in The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and Tony Stark without his army of metallic suits in Iron Man 3 (2013), here Wolverine's healing abilities are drained by villain The Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova), who infects his body with a parasite. This is successful in making a more reluctant, damaged hero, and therefore adding dimensions to his character, but (as sexy as she is), Viper is a pretty thin and non-threatening baddie, and resembles Uma Thurman's Posion Ivy from Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin (1997) too much to be taken seriously.

However, Jackman is as compelling as ever in the role, which is the sole reason that there is still life in Wolverine's stand-alone franchise. This is now his sixth film, in a role he has played for 13 years, and this is probably his most dynamic performance. The Wolverine is heavily flawed, but manages to be a minor success thanks to Jackman's ferocity and more concentration on the hero everyone came to see. There's also a nice little tie-in at the end to the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past, adding yet another weave into Marvel's ever-expanding universe. But, with a weak climax and a strangely thin storyline, I would be surprised if The Wolverine lingers for very long in many people's minds.


Directed by: James Mangold
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Famke Janssen
Country: Australia/USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #583: 'Taken' (2008)

In an age where mainstream action heroes could do with a little one-on-one time with a psychiatrist, this hugely successful French-American crossover brings back the ethics of a Seagal or Stallone - break an arm in three places first, ask questions later. Whereas now I can look back at the 1980's action genre with a semi guilt-ridden smirk and amuse myself at the questionable politics, Taken takes itself very seriously, trying to disguise it's straight-to-DVD credentials as something cleaner, more 'topical'. The topic is people trafficking, but there are too many stubbly, tattooed foreign bad guys to torture and kill for it to become anything profound. He just wants his daughter back.

Forced into retirement from the CIA to be closer to his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace), Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) earns his money from security jobs with his fellow retirees. His ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) is now shacked up with her millionaire husband, and announces that Kim wants to travel to Paris with her fellow 17 year old friend. Mills, having seen the evil in the world due to his job, opposes the trip, but eventually agrees under some strict guidelines. Naturally, upon arrival, Kim and her friend are kidnapped while Kim is on the phone to her father, who takes various clues from the phone call to aid him on his quest to get her back.

This was my second viewing of Taken, as I felt like I needed to watch it again after being perplexed by the almost universal praise this received from audiences. I was amazed the first time around at the sheer audacity of the film's racial stereotypes, and the shake-the-camera-a-lot approach to the action scenes. The second time, I enjoyed it a lot more - but as a comedy. There is simply too many plot-holes and general laziness for it to be taken remotely seriously, and the now infamous phone call scene spouting some classic lines. When talking to the kidnapper - "if you're looking for a ransom, I can tell you I don't have any money. But what I do have are a particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career." It's almost too bad to comprehend.

What confused me most is the message behind this movie, as it seems that Mills' overprotective, almost racist (in context of his views of any countries outside of America) father is proven to be correct when Kim gets kidnapped by some sleazy French people. Yes, yes I know this was made by French people, but even they are portrayed in a stereotypical manner, with Mills' police contact, um, Jean-Claude (Olivier Rabourdin), looking like he's stepped straight out of a Jean-Luc Godard movie and is looking for his baguette, beret and necklace of onions. Then there's the sleazy Albanians, smoking cigarettes in string vests, and the sleazy Middle-Easterners, including a grossly fat sheikh who looks like he's wandered off the set of The Thief of Bagdad. Of course the Americans aren't sleazy, just spoilt and bullying.

How this is so highly-praised is beyond me, as every aspect of the film is awful. I could understand people warming to it's cheddar-caked charm and quotable script ("this is not the time for dick-measuring!"), but other reviews I've read on IMDb take this film seriously, as if it was some kind of stepping-stone in action cinema. Well it's not, it's a steaming pile of unoriginal turd, returning to an oh-so-simple tale of revenge set in the modern-world of continental tension and American interference. A minor plus-point is Neeson, who gets through this surprisingly unscathed, given the bilge he has to work with, and manages to re-invent himself as an action star (he went on to star in The Grey and Taken 2 - both 2012). But I think I've finally understood the moral of this story, and it's one I can agree with - don't go to France.


Directed by: Pierre Morel
Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen
Country: France/USA/UK

Rating: *

Tom Gillespie