Taken 3

The subject of many internet memes, the Taken series has made Liam Neeson a household action movie star name all over the globe. The 3rd & final installment is directed by Olivier Megaton and written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen and once again stars stars Neeson, Maggie Grace & Famke Janssen with Forest Whitaker, Sam Spurell & Dougray Scott joining the cast. Also returning are Leland Orser & Jon Gries.

Bryan Mills, has just had a brief visit at his daughter, Kim’s, house – giving her a large teddy bear as an early birthday gift. Kim, is distracted as she has just found out that she is pregnant but doesn’t let on to either Bryan or her boyfriend who comes in a couple of minutes later. Lenore, who is having problems with her husband Stuart St. John, reaches out to Bryan and tries to rekindle her relationship with her ex-husband. Though Bryan loves her, he refuses to act upon his feelings while she is still married. Later Stuart visits Bryan and warns him off from meeting his wife so regularly and Bryan agrees.

The next day while out buying bagels Bryan receives an urgent text from Lenore asking him to meet her back at his home and on reaching there he finds her dead body. The LAPD arrives on the scene and attempts to arrest Bryan on suspicion but he escapes from them and contacts his buddies Casey, Gilroy & Harris for help. Meanwhile inspector Franck Dotzler, is assigned to the case and becomes fascinated as he reads up on Bryan’s unique history. Bryan collects equipment & ammo from a hideout and retraces Lenore’s steps the previous day. He tracks her movements to a convenience store and recovers surveillance footage of Lenore being abducted by unidentified men at a gas station. LAPD detectives arrive and unknown to them, Bryan allows himself to be arrested, then commandeers the police car to access LAPD’s computer system from the vehicle’s laptop to analyze information. At a restroom in her college, Bryan meets up with Kim, who is being secretly followed by the cops via an electronic bug they placed on her clothing. As Bryan tells her that he is investigating her mother’s death, she informs him that Stuart has hired bodyguards and that she is pregnant.

Bryan again evades the cops at the college but is followed by some Russian mobsters who attack his car and push it over a cliff. Bryan escapes and then kills the Russians which leads him to Stuart – they were hired by him! He abducts and interrogates Stuart, who reveals that his debt to an ex-KGB Spetsnaz and Afghan War veteran operative named Oleg Malankov was the probable motive for Lenore’s murder and that Stuart was forced to send the men in Bryan’s direction as Malankov feared that Bryan would retaliate. With the help of his ex-CIA colleagues Bryan collects Kim from Stuart’s house, and using Stuart as decoy he enters Malankov’s heavily guarded private penthouse and kills off his men. A mortally wounded Malankov, reveals that Stuart had played both men against each other – the businessman had hoped that Bryan & Malankov would kill each other leaving his debt free and with Lenore dead he could also collect a $12 million life insurance police on her. When Bryan arrives back down, he finds that Stuart has abducted Kim and on his way to a private airfield. With the cops hot on his tail, Bryan is able to disable Stuart’s private jet before it takes off by ramming into one of it’s wheels and overpowers Stuart, telling him that he will spend time in prison for his involvement in Lenore’s murder.

As the LAPD cops led by Dotzler arrives on the scene, Bryan warns Stuart that he will later answer for her death. Dotzler and the LAPD arrive and arrest Stuart and Bryan but due to his CIA connections, Mills is later let free with his murder charge cleared. In the aftermath of Stuart’s arrest, Kim, who is pregnant, informs Bryan that she wants to name her baby Lenore, after her mother. A somewhat fitting end to the movie franchise, though this one pales in comparison to the first one and even the sequel was much better. The film was received poorly by the critics, despite that the film was a box office success, grossing over $267 million. I give it a 7 outta 10!

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