Take Your Chances on ‘ Taken 3’

The question you need to ask yourself before watching ‘Taken 3’ (2014) is: How many times can I watch Liam Neeson use his very particular set of skills to track down his kidnapped daughter?

Reprising his role as special operative Bryan Mills, Leeson proves that the third time is less of a charm as this initially thrilling franchise grinds to a gratuitous halt.

Offering over the top action, a sea of red herrings, a corny Russian villain and a conflated plot, ‘Taken 3’ takes place in Los Angeles like a mash-up of a Bond film and ‘The Fugitive’. Seriously, there’s a scene where he escapes through a drain. I kid not.

That aside, the film’s real struggle is deciding what it actually wants to be. At times it seems like it’s going to be a good old ‘Taken’ film where we mostly get to see Neeson scheme, kick ass and track kidnappers and other times it plays out like a murder mystery that seems bent on earning eye roll.

Still, the film is watchable.

Famke Janssen is as hot as ever, Forest Whitaker is thrown into the mix as a bagel munching detective and director Olivier Megaton does what he can with a story that’s not sure where it’s heading.

Expect explosions, car chases and liquor store brawls in between odd montages and several superfluous scenes of Forest Whitaker eating baked goods and snapping a rubber band around his wrist.

Take your chances on ‘Taken 3’ if you’re a fan of the franchise and would like to bid it a fond farewell with thanks for the outstanding original. After all, “it ends here”. And by the looks of the last act, that may be good riddance.

‘Taken 3’ is now showing at Ster-Kinekor at Maerua Mall.

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