96 Hours - Taken 3

Spectacular and moving following starred by the retired CIA operative Mills (Liam Neeson) with plenty of action-packed , thrills , suspense , violence and high body-count . This is a nice sequel released six years after the first , here Liam Neeson returns as ex-covert operative Bryan Mills, whose long awaited reconciliation with his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen married to financer Stuart St. John : Dougray Scott ) is tragically cut short when she is brutally murdered . Consumed with rage, and framed for the crime, he goes on the run to evade the relentless pursuit of the CIA, FBI and the police (law enforcement : Forest Whitaker , Don Harvey , Dylan Bruno) . For one last time, Mills must use his "particular set of skills," to track down the real killers, exact his unique brand of justice, and protect the only thing that matters to him now - his daughter. Meanwhile , his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) is pregnant and really affected for the killing . Shortly after , Mills is rescuing his daughter from the vicious killers . Then , Bryan enlists his daughter to help him and attempts to clear his name and he swears revenge and retaliation against the murdererers . He confronts his nasty enemies in order to find it out and is forced to once again take up violent means to survive . Mills takes the law on his own hands and acting as a merciless revenger . As he faces off a feared villian called Oleg Malinkov (Sam Spruell) , an ex-soldier who was in the Russian army when they invaded Afghanistan . First, they took his daughter. Now, they're coming for him. It Ends Here. They want revenge, They chose the wrong guy. This time, they come for him.

Nail-biting and extremely violent film with a phenomenal Liam Neeson as an implacable avenger daddy .This stirring film contains intrigue , thrills, chills, frenetic action, shootouts , long run time car pursuits , car crashes , and violent fights . From start to finish the noisy action and fast movement are unstopped . Liam Neeson acting as hard-rock , two-fisted retired agent is top-notch , doing all his own fight sequences for the movie , he is the wronged father who must lay his life on the line to protect his intimate family against time and an army of ominous Russian mobsters . Being well accompanied by Maggie Grace as daughter and Famke Janssen in a brief acting as his ex-wife , repeating efficiently their previous roles . Secondary cast is frankly good, such as : Forest Whitaker , Dougray Scott , Sam Spruell , Don Harvey ,David Warshofsky , Jon Gries , and Leland Orser , among others . Nice cinematography by cameraman Eric Kress , using Steadicam and zooms with numerous locations from Los Angeles . The musician Nathaniel Mechaly creates a thrilling , moving soundtrack fitting to frantic action . Lavishly produced by the successful French producer and director Luc Besson from his production company Eurocorps . The trilogy is formed by ¨Taken 1¨ (2008) by Pierre Morel with Maggie Grace , Xander Berkeley , Holy Valance , Katie Cassidy ; in which a gang of human traffickers abduct Kim who barely has time to call her dad and give him information about an Albanese kidnapper and then Bryan seeks vendetta . ¨Taken 2¨ (2012) by Oliver Megathon with D.B. Sweeney ,Luke Grimes , Jon Gries , Rade Serbedzija , set in Istanbul in which Bryan and Lenore are abducted by the Albanian father of a kidnapper Mills killed while rescuing his daughter. And this final "Taken 3" movie in the trilogy, at least this is what is expected at the time of production and release . This trilogy was shot as an R-rated film, but edited down to a PG-13 for its theatrical reléase .

The flick was compellingly directed by Oliver Meghaton who had previously directed other nice action films, such as ¨Taken 2¨, ¨Transporter 3¨ with Jason Statham , ¨The red siren¨ with Asia Argento and ¨Colombiana¨ with Zoe Saldana , also produced by Luc Besson . Megaton was formerly a graffiti artist and took his name from his birthday : the 6th of August 1965 is the 20th anniversary of the dropping of the Hiroshima A-bomb . Rating : 6.5/10 . Better than average sequel , well worth seeing . The picture will appeal to explosive action fans and Liam Neeson fans .

3 stars might be a little harsh seeing as I did enjoy this film, but I enjoyed it for all the wrong reasons. Seemed like a movie made by idiots for idiots. Anyone who is mildly intelligent will find it laughable.

Where do I start, the way this film was shot was poor at best, no scene lasted longer the 3 minutes to try and achieve the same relentless pace we enjoyed from the first Taken movie. This was even worse during any action sequence where there would be about 20 different shots in a space of 30 seconds showing pretty much the same event from pointless angles.

The dialogue, so cheesy, they put in every cliché line from any action movie you can think of, one dimensional characters sounding like idiots. There was a moment in this film where Mills plugs in a USB into a LAPD computer and the computers voices says "You are currently accessing the LAPD hidden files" just in case people in the cinema missed this.

This movie treats its audience like they are slow, and I feel you actually have to be to enjoy it for what it is. Some of the actions sequences were so unrealistic even a 9 your boy would find it a push to believe let alone us adults. Poor way to end a dying trilogy. Hopefully it will now stay dead.

In the beginning, former special forces expert Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) found that his daughter was taken in Paris while, in the sequel, he himself was taken in Istanbul. Clearly Neeson took a bit of persuading to play the role a third time, but it would appear that three factors persuaded him: first, he didn't want to do any travelling this time (so all the shooting -in both senses of the word - is in the overly-familiar Los Angeles where he goes "down the rabbit hole"); second, apparently he didn't think anyone should be taken this time (and the writers obeyed the injunction until near the end when they just couldn't resist any more); and third, he wanted the money.

This is a movie which divides the critics and the public: the former have been very condescending about it but the later enjoy Mills using his special skills again and again (and you can't really blame them). The bad guys here are (mostly) Russians who have terrible accents and awful clothes (especially underwear), but it is always a pleasure to see Forest Whitaker (an intelligent member of the LAPD who knows the significance of a warm bagel). The tag line in the advertisements for "Taken 3" is "It ends here" and I think that would be a sensible decision (although I wouldn't guarantee it).

Taken 3 is a step down from Taken 2, itself a lesser film than the original. But that is to be expected and forgiven. The title could be considered an unimaginative misnomer, but it makes marketing sense.

Aside from the part of Stuart (husband to Famke Janssen's Lenore), the casting is consistent. The addition of Forest Whitaker as a smart cop is for me something of a saving grace since Taken 3 offers up absurdities without question. On reflection, however, the plot has enough coherence to do the trilogy justice. Moreover, it is a joy to see Liam Neeson in this role again.

The director Olivier Megaton has an irksome penchant for frenetic, up-close, disorienting action sequences whereby shots are rarely longer than two seconds. He was a little better in this regard for Taken 2, which had the benefit of superior choreography.

Another personal point of contention is the casting of Sam Spruell as the top Russian villain. He has not an imposing physical constitution and quite frankly brings to mind Jim Carrey, who sported the same haircut in the Dumb and Dumber movies. Not at all what I want in a villain.

I generally enjoy the films I see, and this one—notwithstanding the negatives—is no exception. However, I would not recommend it for people who are more stern in matters of taste.

I love this series. I can't for life of me understand why anybody would review this poorly, yet I see bad reviews. Clearly those people are nitpicking. This is a classy action film. It follows really well in the footsteps of those that proceeded it. Liam Neeson is just a great action star. He knows when to pour it on, and when to back off so it's not too much. That's really important in this genre, because any misstep can easily make the movie look phony, cheap - or just bad acting.

The only absurd part of the movie was the swapping out of actors for Stuart St. John's part. The first movie had him as a kind, old balding man and in this film he's been transformed into a suave, young, tanned husband. Huh? It serves the movie well, but doesn't follow what we saw in the first film with any accuracy.

This movie has all the essential elements of the first TAKEN - just distributed slightly differently. Forest Whitaker adds a nice touch.

This is an action movie worth watching. Hollywood - please make TAKEN 4!!