Taken 3 (2015)

** out of ****

As an actor, Liam Neeson seems to have had a charmed life. He doesn't have movie star looks, he's long and lanky without a hint of muscle, and while he's a good actor nobody is ever going to think of him as one of the great thespians of his generation. Yet for a while he made a great impact with terrific historical and period dramas (“Ethan Fromme”, “Schindler's List”, “Roy Roy”, “Michael Collins” and several others).

But somewhere deep inside he always wanted to be an action movie star, and throughout his career he's shown up in a few (“Next of Kin”, “Shining Through”, “Star Wars”, “Batman”). But a few years back a funny thing happened – despite being in his late 50s, the world accepted him as an action star. “The A Team”, “The Grey”, “A Walk Among the Tombstones”, “Nonstop”.... it seems that they're all he does lately. Of course none of them are very good, just mindless little fluff pieces that encourage you to shut your brain down for a while, but there's a place for those films too.

“Taken 3”, much like the first two in the trilogy, is a perfect example. The first film took a far-beyond-silly plot and made it fun through Neeson's cold assassin-like manner. “Taken 2” was in my opinion a much better movie, though not as much fun. The third installment is unquestionably the weakest of the three, not being a very good movie and not retaining much of the fun, and requires “suspension of disbelief” in epic proportions..... but given what the film is supposed to be, it's not all bad.

Bryan Mills' life seems to be a lot more peaceful these days. He and his daughter are close, his ex-wife Lenore likes him again, and he's happy. There even seems a good chance of he and Lenore reconciling, though Bryan is too honorable to act on those impulses while she is still married. Everyone lives in L.A. and life is good. But one night Lenore's wealthy husband stops by Bryan's place to ask him to step back from Lenore to let them try to save their marriage without him being in the way, and Bryan agrees.

So far so good, but get ready to suspend disbelief. In a really big way. A day later Bryan gets a text that Lenore is coming to see him, so he runs out for breakfast for them. When he gets back he finds Lenore dead in his bed, the murder weapon on the floor and the police beating down his door. Clearly he has been framed, but why (and by who)? Rather than succumb to the police he escapes and begins his own investigation.

What he finds and where it leads him is pretty ridiculous, but hey, it's an action movie. The director (Olivier Megaton – what a great name; sounds like a James Bond villain.....) presents everything as though it is all dead serious, but for all that still doesn't go overboard with the tone. There are great chases, plenty of special effects and explosions, intrigue and a ridiculously convoluted conspiracy to wend through. But still in all it wasn't a terrible flick, if you can keep in mind that it isn't supposed to be “Citizen Kane”, and Forest Whitaker is really enjoyable (as he tends always to be) as the LAPD Inspector hot on Bryan's trail.

My biggest issue with the film was the cinematography of the action sequences. Megaton decided to go with the “cut-cut-cut” theory for those scenes, presumably to make it more “action-packed”. Each cut is about a half second and jumps all over the place in point-of-view and camera angle. To be honest, it's a bit dizzying. I generally like it when directors use cuts to make the action more intense, but this was way overboard. Luckily though that is only through the fight and chase scenes, so you don't have to deal with it for extended lengths of time.

My only other real issue is in the plot's resolution, which without giving it away, totally forgets everything that Neeson did throughout the film that the police would have taken issue with. Stealing cars, assaulting officers, enormous highway pileups..... Bryan Mills doesn't have to reckon with any consequences of these things. But hey.... him ending up in the slammer for endangering public safety and destruction of property would have made for a crappy ending.....

Don't go expecting to see a great movie. Don't even go expecting to see a great action movie. But it's a reasonably enjoyable one, and if you liked the first two you will probably enjoy this one. At age 62 I don't know how much longer Neeson will be an action star, or if he will ever make a really good action movie (something I don't think he has done yet). But he keeps cranking out decent ones, and while “Taken 3” isn't one of the stronger efforts, I thought it was worth a watch.