TAKEN 3

As seen in

www.camrosecanadian.com

“I will find you. I will kill you.” That is the catchphrase made popular in the series that Taken has turned into.  Liam Neeson is back as Bryan Mills, the man with a particular set of skills that he performs very well.  Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen come back to write the third installment of the franchise that made Liam Neeson a household name in the action industry for the last decade. 

It’s been a few years since the events of the last film took place.  Mills is still trying to be the best father he can to his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace), while remaining friends with her mother/ex-wife Lenora (Famke Janssen).  While both tasks are a struggle to the man who could take out a room full of baddies in less than a minute, he does his best.  One day, while out, he receives a message from Lenora to meet at his place to talk.  When he arrives he finds Lenora deceased on the bed after apparently having her throat slashed (more on that later).  Soon after he arrives the police show up to the house and catch Bryan beside the body.  However, not wanting to go with the police, he uses his aforementioned skills and escapes.  Now, with the police, led by Inspector Frank Dotzler (Forest Whittaker) and other various agencies out to get him, Bryan must evade the law long enough to prove his innocence, find out who did this, and take them out.

The real downside is you’ll still feel like you have seen this before, just like any revenge-style film ever made.  Make no mistake; it was much better than Taken 2, but it’s definitely not going to break new ground.  The shaky camera work during the action scenes was more nauseating than any camcorder movie could do.  And finally, the comment I made earlier about Lenora’s cause of death is probably the biggest beef I had.  The Canadian MPAA gave this show a 14A rating.  If you’ve ever seen any movie with that rating, it means it’s an R rated movie minus the hardcore swearing.  Though, for some reason this went the other way, making the action soft and not a single drop of blood spills.  With all the carnage (up to and including the previously mentioned throat slash, gun shots, and even a fight on broken glass), this film never shows any gore whatsoever.  Its obvious absence came across as laughable and they probably could have gotten away with a G rating.  While Taken was trying so hard to be Besson’s answer to Die Hard, this third movie definitely did not give us the awesomeness that was Die Hard with a Vengeance. No, instead it gave us Live Free or Die Hard – a film that belonged to a once great franchise, watered down and spoon fed to the viewers.  Still – you will probably enjoy the ride!