carving up his former wife. The first sign an action franchise is on the ropes is when the producers either start pulling the plug on primary characters or replacing actors. The Famke Janssen character Lenore St. John exits the action early on in this fleet-footed installment, and she ends up in the morgue with a slashed throat. Lenore won't make an encore unless "Transporter" writer & producer Luc Besson pulls a "Dallas" and resurrects this dame. Similarly, "Mission Impossible 2" actor Dougray Scott takes over the role that actor Xander Berkeley originated as Lenora's second husband, Stuart St. John, who appeared briefly in "Taken." Nevertheless, despite these changes and the ill things they usually bode for a Hollywood franchise, "Taken 3" surpasses the first two epics. "Taken 2" director Olivier Megaton and "Taken" scenarists Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen never let the pace slacken once they've established the premise and everything goes to Hell in a bucket. Neeson has to elude cops on foot, survive cars plunging respectively down elevators as well as hillsides with explosive results, swerve around cars and gigantic cargo container boxes careening down a freeway, and dodge a hailstorm of blazing lead. If you enjoyed the first two "Taken" movies, you shouldn't be disappointed with the third one. Personally, I liked it enough to watch it twice. Things get off to a lightweight start with former CIA agent Bryan Mills Liam Neeson of "Nonstop" buying his daughter Kim Maggie Grace of "Lockout" a huge, stuffed Panda bear for her birthday. While Bryan is planning to surprise Kim, Kim is staring incredulously at a pregnancy test and pondering her collegiate future. Bryan shows up with the Panda and a bottle of champagne. Kim doesn't know what to say except he is three days early. Our hero explains that he is struggling with the problem of not being predictable. Later, Bryan's former wife Lenora visits him at his apartment and complains that her husband Stuart and she are experiencing marital woes. She kisses Bryan in a moment of intimacy, but he breaks off the lip-lock. Eventually, a jealous Stuart asks Bryan to stop seeing his wife. Stuart tells Bryan he plans to go to Las Vegas the next day. Meantime, Bryan spends part of that day out golfing with some buddies. When he arrives home, Bryan discovers a knife on the floor of his apartment. Ignorantly, he picks up the knife, enters his bedroom, and finds Lenora sprawled in his bed with her throat cut. Before he realizes what has happened, two uniformed Los Angeles Police Department cops storm in with their pistols drawn. When they try to handcuff him, Bryan disarms them and flees. A furious foot chase ensues with Bryan charging down back streets, vaulting high fences, and scrambling through homes with the fuzz at his heels. Miraculously, relying on his ingenuity, Bryan manages to elude them. LAPD Inspector Franck Dotzler Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker of "The Last King of Scotland" takes charge of the investigation. Appropriately enough, Dotzler is baffled when he examines Bryan's records and finds staggering information gaps. "The man is a ghost," he proclaims in frustration to his colleagues, and so he orders them to keep tabs on Bryan's twentysomething daughter Kim. No sooner has he eluded the long arm of the law than he informs Kim that he had nothing to do with his ex-wife's demise. Afterwards, Bryan takes refuge at a hideout and assembles the only four men that he can trust who worked with him in the CIA. Director Olivier Megaton relies on multiple cameras to capture the no-holds-barred action throughout its nimble 109 minutes. Good action thrillers not only keep the hero leaping through fiery hoops, but they also keep the audience guessing. At least two major surprises take place during "Taken 3," and the villains qualify as homicidal hellions. During one kinetic liquor store shoot-out, Bryan eliminates four trigger-happy henchmen in a hail of gunfire. At one point, he has the fourth dastard on his knees with a pistol in his face. Bryan threatens to shoot the thug if he doesn't reveal the identity of his villainous boss. Rather than come clean, the thug snarls that he would rather die than squeal, tears the gun from Bryan's fingers, and shoots himself in the face. One of the biggest scenes involves our hero infiltrating the lair of a murderous Russian mobster in downtown L.A. who has several heavily armed goons guarding his premises along with a sophisticated surveillance security system. Naturally, Bryan has few problems circumventing the elaborate security system, but the Russian springs a few surprises on him when they tangle. Predictably, the police remain two jumps behind our hero, but they never let up on the pressure that they exert on both Bryan and Kim during their investigation. Forest Whitaker doesn't have much of a role to work with, but he is a live-wire every moment he appears on camera, and he gets some wonderful mileage out of twisting a rubber band around his hand. Dougray Scott is exceptional as Lenora's complicated husband who is up to his ears in trouble with Sam Spruell's vicious, heavily tattooed Russian gunsel Oleg Malankov. Watching "Taken 3" is like watching the riveting Keanu Reeves' thriller "John Wick." These two movies amount to guilty pleasures with the accent on outlandish action sequences where the hero is not only outnumbered but also outgunned.

Techno-whiz.There is one ray of hope, though. Homicide Detective Inspector Dotzler played by Forest Whitaker seems to think the evidence against Brian is a little _too_ good. Still, he's duty-bound to go by the letter of the law in trying to arrest Brian, using any means necessary. And, frankly, he does a way better job of playing cat-and-mouse with Brian than that crooked French cop in the first film! That, and the fact Dotzler has the funniest line in the whole film, are two good enough reasons in themselves for you folks to go see this, too.*Ulysses' ever-faithful wife in Homer's THE ODYSSEY.

parts is probably that initially nobody is really Taken, that does change in the final of the movie, but initially Bryan tries to uncover who has really murdered his wife.An interesting addition to the third installment is Forest Whitaker who plays Franck Dotzler the Police chief. He brings a lot of fun and entertainment to the movie. I personally found it really funny how he played with the rubber band throughout the full movie until finally using it to close the file.While in the beginning of the Movie quite some time is taken to explain the situation between Bryan and his ex wife and her new husband as well as his now pregnant daughter shortly after the action takes over and does not stop until the movie finishes.Unlike the first two Taken Installments Taken 3 comes up with a not really expected Plot Twist towards the end which is changing everything. or better said Bryan has to hunt down one more person that was not on his list initially...Being the last installment of the Taken Series until another one is announced , Taken 2 was as well the last one before I have really enjoyed it. It is not often that a third installment reaches the same or in this case a better level than the previous installments.This is certainly one to watch and such a great movie early in the year makes a lot of hopes for a great Movie year. And hopefully this will not be the last installment of the Taken Franchise.Verdict: If you want to see a great Action Flick with interesting Turns and the best Taken so far this is not a movie you want to miss.

different to Bourne Ultimatum. The close combat fighting skills are nicely done, as a martial artist practitioner and expert it was remarkable, and realistic, that you can notice hand to hand empty hand vs weapons, lot of shoot out, and everything that you need to make pleasant recipe for an action-thriller movie. People are complaining because the movie is dull slow boring, but to me I could not see were their boredom come from, perhaps concentrating on their stomachs when they will finish their last bite in their popcorn instead on the ride. Anyway it also has nice drama blended with suspense,this time building the character into the story was more emphasized.I was also surprised when Brian Mills mates had more screen this time.In fact their characters are more elevated then to the first and second Taken movies. I say to all action driven martial arts enthusiast go and which it for your self! Don't bite everything on what those sick critics are saying!To them crap movie they will give more credit, then to action-thrillers. Like they did to the crappy Dan Affronsky, Noah, that it didn't make sense to me, that was not even relevant to the scriptures and Bible. To me they don't now nothing about nature and when you come to conflict in real life.However their life is behind desks and computer.They don't seem to understand life threatening events and especially when you have to use close combat fighting skills, against opponents forces, run for your life or kill or be killed. When they do, then they can talk to me.This movie it had a lot of appeal to me, I was was glad that Liam Nesson pulled this off,he was professional, expert, the ending was suspenseful the way it should be. This movie is way better then Unknown and all other Taken hybrids.Taken 3 is crying for a 4th round and I won't reveal here, that can be a corner stone for a sequel.

you'll love this one just as much!!!

then everybody has his own opinion. So in opinion, go out there and watch Taken 3; trust me it's great.

and Forest Whitaker did an amazing job of adding spice and balance to the overall plot.If you are a fan of the Taken series, I believe that you will like this fresh new-look plot. It was a well-balanced movie that brought back almost all of the characters that we gotten to know over the last two movies. I would recommend that you go out and see this movie, even if you have missed one or the first two in the series.

heights of Taken 2008 . The chase sequences are breathtaking, especially in the climax of the film. A note on the performances. Liam Neeson is outstanding as Bryan Mills. Forest Whitaker is great as Franck Dotzler. Famke Janssen is impressive as Lenore St. John. Maggie Grace is spectacular as Kim Mills. Grace's performance is one of the highlights of the film. Dougray Scott is good as Stuart St. John. Taken 3 is a must watch for action movie buffs & fans of the Taken franchise. The series ends with a bang. You will not be disappointed.