Not too Taken by this blockbuster

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TAKEN AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN: In the latest instalment of the series since the first film opened in 2008, Liam Neeson reprises his role as Brian Mills, seen here talking to his daughter, played by Maggie Grace. (Photo: http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/taken-3)

“I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”

Sound familiar? While fans of action movies know this line from the Taken trilogy, people who spend way too much time on the Internet see this as the perfect response to anyone who has crossed them.

The Taken film series revolves around Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), a former member of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who sets out to track and kill a group of bad guys who have taken his precious family members. For no reason. Or maybe there is a deeper reason, but does it really matter? We all just want to watch this to see the old man kick butt. And, just to be clear – one family member is taken for each movie.

The third instalment of the series, Taken 3, was released in cinemas on January 9, 2015. The fun starts when our tough old guy flips out at finding his dead ex-wife, Lenore (played by Famke Janssen) dead in his bedroom. It doesn’t help that the police caught wind of this and busted into his house, either.

What does he do? He runs before he gets taken, too.

Despite grossing over S$14 million during the first weekend of its release, I wasn’t as taken with the movie as many others were. The story was standard fare: a typical cat and mouse game. Even if they did try at pulling a plot twist at the end, it just didn’t work out. Though there was good pacing, the story line was let down by being predictable.
For starters, the elaborate cut-scenes of Detective Franck playing with his chess piece throughout the entire movie had little point and the random underwear-clad Russian boss Bryan was just downright weird.

Final verdict: this is really for Neeson fans (since he has publicly said he will not do any more in the franchise) or those who want to see how the Taken series finally ends.

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