Taken 3 - L'ora della verità

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).

One of the worst movie editing I've ever seen in my life for an action movie. That killed the movie for me. I think they should just withdraw Taken 2 and Taken 3 and admit that they should have stopped at the first one.

This movie was so boring, and when you expected to see some action scenes, you were getting yourself in the paranoid mind of a director who wanted to experiment on the poor audience. My eyes still hurt from the crappy editing of this movie.

Guys please stop here, enough, no more Taken sequels. With each one of them you're killing the hype that the first one created.

This is my biggest guilty pleasure of all time, I know this film is God awful, from the directing to the writing and the stereotypical villain but I honestly don't care it was just popcorn entertainment and seeing Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills is always good. The plot of this film is basically the plot of The Fugitive. This film is so bad it's good and that's why I give this film 6/10.

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.

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.