Bryan Mills (Liam Nesson) is friends with his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) who is having problems with her husband Stewart while Bryan’s daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) finds out she is pregnant.   Soon Lennie is found murdered in Bryan’s apartment and he is framed for her murder.  Bryan goes on the run as he looks to clear his name and find out who killed his ex-wife while a thick headed Los Angeles detective (Forrest Whitaker) tries to bring Bryan in.  The detective knows how smart Bryan is and soon Bryan finds out it has something to do with Russian criminals.     He must to work his certain set of skills with help from his old buddies as he searches for the ones responsible for Lenore’s death while on the run from the LAPD (who mostly have a stick up their butt while wanting to bring him and underestimating him like dummies).

 

TAKEN 3 is an improvement over TAKEN 2.  It is almost as good as the first TAKEN.   It brings the saga to a close while delivering some good action sequences.   The big complaint I have is that some of the shots in the climax are too tight where they could be farther out to better track the action overall and keep track of what is happening.  The best shot action sequence in the director’s career is from an early film, RED SIREN, and I think the director of photography could have taken some cues from the great hotel shoot out in RED SIREN when they shot and framed some of the action in the climatic scenes. If you were disappointed by TAKEN 2, this latest TAKEN does redeem itself even though it still isn’t as fun as the first film.    The box office may make way for TAKEN 4 (which Liam Nesson is open to).   Go see it if you’re in need of seeing Liam Nesson kick ass and play detective for the truth, but I hope you don’t expect the cops to be smart (which most of them in TAKEN 3 aren’t as they are too busy wanting to arrest Bryan Mills).  Rewatching TAKEN 3 has shown how badly written the story is where the bad guy have a scheme that only a cartoon character would think of.   The first TAKEN has the best script while TAKEN 2 failed in its execution with bland bad guys.  TAKEN 3 fails in execution where the action sequences and Liam Nesson (and his old security crew) are the only saving graces of the movie.

 

The unrated extended cut is six minutes longer than the PG-13 theatrical version, but I really didn’t notice the difference on what material was put back into the movie.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The deleted scene is a seven minute flashback scene for a Russian gangster named Malanknov which would have spoiled many things for the plot.

 

SAM’S BUNKER A.K.A. THE RABBIT HOLE is a walkthrough description of ten gadgets that Bryan Mills uses in the movie

 

TAKEN TO L.A. is the first of two five minute promotional featurettes which offers quick interviews, some behind-the-scenes footage, clips from TAKEN 3, and some info on the making of the sequel (which was shot in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Spain, and Paris).

A TAKEN LEGACY is the second five minute promotional featurette which has more interviews and clips about the TAKEN series.

 

Promotional photo gallery

Theatrical trailer

Previews for THE MARINE 4, HOMELAND Season 4, UNFINISHED BUSINESS, SONS OF ANARCHY Season 7, and THE TAKEN FRANCHISE

 

Also a code to download and/pr stream a Digital HD Ultraviolet copy of the movie is included.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS: The action sequences are great and so is Liam Nesson, but the script is a total mess for TAKEN 3.  If you want a solid movie in the series, stick with the first TAKEN.

 

This review is ©4-23-2015 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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