Taken 3 2014

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: ​I'll tell you what got "Taken." A hundred and twelve minutes of my life got "Taken." Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: A movie that thinks the way to earn our knuckle-biting is to be as dull as hell for 35 minutes, then send a giant shipping container hurtling along the interstate. But you yawn through that, too. Read more

Maggie Lee, Variety: The third and presumably final installment of the Liam Neeson action franchise is a mind-numbing, crash-bang misfire. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: Because Mills' hyper-competence never seems exciting, it instead becomes giggle-inducing. Read more

Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: All kinds of problems are forgivable in a movie like this if the finished product is exciting. That doesn't happen here. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: Forest Whitaker turns in one of his sleepiest performances; no one else seems to be trying very hard either, yet director Olivier Megaton delivers some good chases, fist fights, and shots of Neeson looking glum. Read more

Kyle Anderson, Entertainment Weekly: It's the weakest of the trilogy, but Taken 3 kicks just hard enough to survive another day. Read more

Clarence Tsui, Hollywood Reporter: Besson's team has signed off the trilogy with a whimper rather than the kind of unfettered bang delivered by the first two films. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: "Taken 3" is so unintentionally hilarious I couldn't help but wonder - do movie contracts carry a humiliation bonus clause these days? Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: All you need to know about Taken 3 is that Liam Neeson survives an explosive car crash - twice. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Neeson's late-life rebirth as an action star may be drawing to a close with this limping, wheezing entry in the "Taken" franchise. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Here it's the audience that gets taken. Read more

Nicolas Rapold, New York Times: The logy screenplay, by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, sags under head-clutchingly banal dramatic scenes. Only Mr. Neeson's appeal somehow survives unscathed, perhaps the most impressive stunt of all. Read more

David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer: Nothing gets taken here except your ticket money. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Taken 3 is exactly what one might anticipate from an unnecessary sequel in a mediocre franchise. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Be warned, sequel fanboys: This thing sucks! At 62, Neeson still has a glare that means badass. Nothing else makes a damn lick of sense. The only thing getting taken is the audience. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: If you love the other "Taken" movies, you will like this. But if you're determined to love it, you'll have to talk yourself into it - and even then, it might not work. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Taken 3 is such a blatant paycheque gig for Liam Neeson, you almost expect him to stop midmovie to deposit his loot into an ATM. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Megaton and editors Audrey Simonaud and Nicolas Trembasiewicz take every fist-fight, shoot-out and highway chase and shred them into milliseconds of mismatched visual information like something out of a latter-day Godard movie. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: 'Taken 3' scores over its predecessor on almost every level: the stakes are higher, the LA locations are nicely photographed and, best of all, there's an actual plot, with twists and everything. Read more

Bruce Kirkland, Toronto Sun: The premise is pretty much the same: Mess with Neeson's loved ones and you will die. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: If you've seen Taken or Taken 2, you've already been taken, and there's not much different here. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: The concept is lame, and the execution is lame, too. The more the film advances, the less we care about the plot - or anything that happens to anybody, really. Read more