Taken 3
Dir: Olivier Megaton
2015
*
Taken 3 could and should have been called Taken 3: Takin' the piss. The first film was average but enjoyable enough, the second was plain awful but somehow it was a box office hit and so a third installment was commissioned. Taken 3 has made over $325 million. I can't even begin to explain this as it is one of the worst action films I've ever seen. Written and produced by Luc Besson, I wouldn't mind if he made these films to fund other work but he hardly directs anything anymore. If he would spend just a fraction of the close to Billion dollars he's made on the franchise then it would be worth it. Just. Olivier Megaton is back as director, like a hungry Dog thrown scraps. I can't imagine the script took much longer than a couple of minutes to write, it's fairly basic, is stupid and makes very little sense. Liam Neeson returns to the role and looks even more uncomfortable than he did in the last installment. Maggie Grace plays his daughter once more, character and actor learning nothing from the two previous films. The story sees Bryan Mills accused of a murder he didn't commit, instead of hand himself over to the police he decides to evade them and try to solve the case himself, accidentally blowing up two buildings, injuring dozens of Police and killing approx five innocent bystanders in the process. For a highly trained super-spy, he's pretty f**king clumsy. The action sequences are dull, all have been done before and done better. The acting is atrocious as is the script. It is dumb fun but without the fun. I've written far more about this film than it deserves.