Taken 3

TAKE 1: One Man’s Opinion

…because film is largely subjective

 

by Frederick William Springer III

 Taken 3

Release Date:   9 January 2015                                                           Runtime: 109 Minutes              

Review Date:  24 March 2015                                                             Rating:  4 (of 6)

     Unlike with the previous installments, I wasn't very taken with Taken 3.

     Nor does the title really live up to its name.

     Here we have the nice addition of Forest Whitaker to the cast.  However, his Franck Dotzler is a very, very mellowed out version of the Tommy Lee Jones character in The Fugitive and U.S. Marshalls.  So mellow in fact that he's almost like an absentee dad.  Unfortunately, he's not too commanding a presence when he isn't.

     While there is action to be sure, that almost seems laid back, too.  The formula in the past films was a kidnapping, plenty of action and a foreign locale all nicely edited together.  This time around, even the foreign locale is absent, everything taking place in L.A.  And at 109 minutes, this has the longest runtime in the franchise.

     To their credit, they've kept the same writers on the entire series (though that's probably because one of them is the producer).  While this is something I'd normally applaud, here it may have been more of a hindrance, their idea stale.

     The only real bonus here is the appearance of Jon Gries, limited though it was, me always happy to see him since his days on The Pretender.  (In fairness, Leland Orser was also in The Pretender guest starring in several episodes but I didn't much care for his character there, though I enjoy him in Taken.)