When Bryan Mills’ ex-wife is murdered and he is wrongly accused of it he is forced ‘yet’ again to use his expertise of having been an ex-government operative. He goes on the run not just to evade the relentless pursuit of the law-keepers, but also to expose the law-breakers behind this and protect his daughter from the imminent danger. The events that follow are chronicled to form the rest of the story.
Language:
English
Running Time:
109 min
Rating:
PG-13
Release date:
9 January 2015
Directed by:
Olivier Megaton
Produced by:
Luc Besson
Written by:
Luc Besson
Robert Mark Kamen
Starring:
Liam Neeson
Forest Whitaker
Famke Janssen
Maggie Grace
Dougray Scott
Sam Spruell
Leland Orser
Music by:
Nathaniel Méchaly
Shot by:
Eric Kress
Editing by:
Audrey Simonaud
Nicolas Trembasiewicz
Distributed by:
20th Century Fox

What’s Hot

  • Liam Neeson, the ageing crusader, returns for one last outing of the hugely popular ‘Taken’ series and carries the movie on his shoulders (rightly so!!) with relative ease quite similar to what he did in the previous outings. He does what he does best – emancipates seriousness and nobility no matter what the situation is, punches people, bashes their heads into beer fridges, spots minute details with the eye of a hawk and shoots anything that speaks English with a Russian accent – pretty much puts all of his ‘particular set of skills’ to use!
  • Maggie Grace seems to be the only other character in the movie that gets sufficient limelight next only to Neeson as she plays out her part pretty neat. After all the hand-grenade throwing and car chases from the second installment, she seems to have settled into much quieter territory along with the other support cast who fit into their respective roles.
  • Eric Kress’ with his wide-angle and helicopter shots has tried his best to capture the quintessence of LA and Nathaniel Méchaly’s background score intertwines well into the disposition of the movie to render an overall impressive audio-visual experience.

What’s Not

  • Bryan Mills – the role that made Liam Neeson a household name and placed him on par with the contemporary action stars for famously leaving his daughter’s kidnappers the most insolent masculine answering-machine memo in the history of Hollywood, could have certainly been better etched to give the series a fitting finale.
  • If Taken made the movie-goers take a step back and watch with their mouths agape, Taken 2 with its stunning visuals, did a fairly decent job in keeping them engrossed. But just as is the case with many other movies involving sequels, Taken 3 too fails to keep the audience riveted and entertained. It just becomes too predictable and the lack of instinctive thrills and startling twists doesn’t seem to help either.
  • The initial domestic developments kicking off the movie don’t seem to augur well with the flick as not only does it drag around a melodramatic feel, but also tests the patience of the audience.
  • Whitaker as the police chief spends much of his time staring reflectively at bagels, fondling chess pieces and stretching elastic strips; ends up becoming more of an admirer of Neeson’s skills than his imprisoner.

Badges

Verdict

Verdict Stamp

The first installment’s succinct, memorable, 'I will find you and I will kill you,' has now bowed into a remorseful, 'I don't know who, and I don't know why, but I'm going to find out'. That must tell one what to expect from this final (hopefully!!!) installment of the Taken series.