As breath-taking as the first 2

Film review: Taken 3

MANILA, Philippines - With Luc Besson producing and writing the screenplay (with Robert Mark Kamen), and Liam Neeson reprising his role as retired CIA operative Bryan Mills, the Taken franchise film series comes to a close with the latest installment, Taken 3. And much of what made the first two action films such a success is carried over in this closing episode, which is directed by Olivier Megaton who also directed Taken 2. With grizzled CIA veteran Bryan Mills at the film’s center, the films have always been about career impacting on family/parenting; and how despite retirement, a particular set of skills never leaves you and comes in handy given the set of circumstances that befalls the Mills family.

With impeccable continuity, Famke Janssen as ex-wife Lenore and Maggie Grace as daughter Kim are back for the third film. Unlike the first two which gave us Paris and Istanbul, respectively, as exotic locations, the third film is firmly rooted in Los Angeles, Mills’ “hometown.” And with Dougray Scott taking on the role of Lenore’s second husband and stepfather to Kim, we expand the involvement of this element in the dynamics of the Mills “family.”

I won’t be giving anything away (it’s in the trailer) by saying the film revolves around Mills finding a dead Lenore in his apartment and being framed for her murder. What follows is a cat-and-mouse game between Mills and the LAPD, in the form of Forest Whitaker as the head police inspector; with Russian gang lords and the aforementioned second husband playing pivotal roles in the plot’s development.

The well-executed action sequences come at regularly timed intervals; and Mills as rough, grizzled, no-nonsense senior citizen is there in all its glory. This has been the special attraction the character has evinced — how despite his age, in FPJ and Erap fashion, he takes on insurmountable odds and comes up trumps, in the name of family. Kidnapped daughter in Taken 1 all the way to keeping her safe from harm’s way in this film — the motivation fueled by fatherhood is something we can empathize with. And if, at times, the action sequences coupled with Mills age strains credulity, we take this with a grain of salt. Jumping out of second story windows, scaling seven-foot fences — for most 60 year-olds, this would mean long moments of catching one’s breath, if not being outright surprised one survived! But for Mills, this all comes with the territory.

Panned by the critics abroad, Taken 3 will in all likelihood, be a runaway success at our local box-office. This was what happened with the previous films. We seem to like our heroes with creaky bones nowadays; and it is thanks to the Taken franchise that Neeson is enjoying a resurgent leading man film career at such a late age.