Taken a Break: Megaton’s Slurpy Finish Brings Euro Schlock to L.A.

It should surprise no one that Taken 3 is a laughable, sometimes downright embarrassing mess of stapled together derivatives, narrative clichés, and the kind of god-awful dialogue that makes one wonder if screenwriters Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen even know what real life human beings sound like. Director Olivier Megaton, acolyte of Monsieur Besson, returns to direct the third installment, which is a minor improvement over Taken 2 if only due to the fact that we’re not simply photocopying the initial film that started us down this ‘rabbit hole’ in the first place. But then, the film belies the faulty foundation from which the franchise was born—this could have easily been any generic celluloid jockstrap for Mr. Neeson, honorable family man extraordinaire defending the innocent and (usually) privileged targets of ill will to some inane or illogical resolution.