TAKEN 3 Review

If only these Taken movies escalated themselves to an R-rating we might have something of more aspiration here. Instead, this series quickly dissolved into quick cash grabs that felt like little more than afterthoughts to everyone involved. The original film seemingly caught everyone off guard with its brilliant marketing campaign and the inherent rush of excitement it delivered to the point that when we were looking for more of the same from the sequel, none of those surprising feelings were readily available. It seemed the general consensus on the Olivier Megaton-directed sequel was that it was rather horrible and resorted to showing Liam Neeson's Bryan Mills smother folks to death rather than doing anything that was actually impressive. And yet, here we are with the third and presumably final film (again directed by Megaton no less) and it does little to redeem the legacy of what was originally the film responsible for bringing us the Neesploitation period, but may actually tarnish that legacy the more I continue to think and write about the film. If one wonders why such a pedigreed actor such as Neeson would continue to return to a series that has long since run its course you'd only have to look as far as his paycheck to find an answer. To be clear: Taken 3 has a reported budget of $48 million and almost half of that budget was consumed by the actors salary. For this third film Neeson was paid a handsome, and very exclusive, $20 million. So, if you thought the makers of this unnecessary sequel might take the road less traveled or that Mr. Neeson might use his pull and demand he only appear in the film if they came up with a story that truly justified another film you're sorely out of luck as he is laughing all the way to the bank. People clearly don't care though because despite the second film being little more than a cash grab with little effort to hide that intention and this third film being nothing except more of the same, folks still showed up in droves when they could have been seeing the best film of the year instead.

First Trailer for TAKEN 3

I was not a fan of Taken 2 after it essentially felt like a film of leftovers rather than a justifiable premise for a second installment. That talks even surfaced for a third film after critics and audiences alike freely expressed their disdain for the money-grubbing sequel was surprising but here we are two years later and we have the first trailer for that threequel appropriately titled, TAK3N. If you're already laughing you may not want to hit the jump to take a look at the actual trailer as it is clear Luc Besson and his team of writers have sunk to desperate levels in order to come up with another chapter in the Brian Mills story. The problem is, no matter what he does, Liam Neeson automatically brings credibility to it and dammit if I wasn't eventually sucked into the scenario at hand here due to how intimidatingly badass Neeson is able to come off in the trailer. The third film will also feature the credible Forest Whitaker as a law enforcement agent who is after Mills after he is framed for murder, so there might be a chance of some redemption here. Still, before I get ahead of myself we have to take into consideration the fact that Taken 2 director Oliver Megaton (Colombiana, Transporter 3) is back behind the camera leading me to have to hope this isn't as completely forgettable as the second film, but might, at the very least, contain some of the excitement and thrills that made the original such a surprise. Leland Orser, Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace return with Dougray Scott and Jon Gries rounding out the cast. Tak3n moves from the October release of part two back to the early year release date of the original as we will get what Neeson says is the final chapter on January 9, 2015.