As a guy who liked both Taken and Taken 2 (not a popular sentiment), I went into Taken 3 with some hope… which was greatly dashed for 45-50 minutes of this 90 minutes flick.

So Liam Neeson and his fam are back and instead of tearing through Europe and killing Eastern Europeans, this time they are on a budget so Neeson is tearing through Los Angeles… killing Eastern Europeans. Neeson’s character in this one has been framed for the murder of his wife (bye bye Famke Jansen) and now he’s on the run… you might even call him a Fugitive. A budget, low-rent Fugitive. It has nothing to do with the previous two movies besides, of course, Liam Neeson being a bad-ass.

At least 45-50 minutes into the movie, the action kicks in and Neeson stops doing his Richard Kimble thing and actually goes on the offensive… and then the movie gets a fair bit better. As in, prior to that, this movie might have been an early runner for worst movie of 2015… after that it’s just an ultimately forgettable film with some decent action scenes at the end. I don’t mean to sound like a knuckle-dragger who can’t handle a flick without people shooting at each other… it’s just that the first half to first two-thirds of the flick was just boring.

Random aside… someone does get taken in this movie… only this time the screenwriter assured us that the person has been snatched. I think this was meant as a joke.

So… there ya go. Another awesome January movie.

Score: 68