Taken 3

The End?

Liam Neeson returns as ex-covert operative Bryan Mills, whose long awaited reconciliation with his ex-wife is tragically cut short when she is brutally murdered. Consumed with rage, and framed for the crime, he goes on the run to evade the relentless pursuit of the CIA, FBI and the police. For one last time, Mills must use his “particular set of skills,” to track down the real killers, exact his unique brand of justice, and protect the only thing that matters to him now – his daughter.

– Written by 20th Century Fox (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2446042/)

Ok so here’s what’s up, 2008’s “Taken” was awesome! I loved it, everyone I talked to loved it, people that reviewed it loved it… you get the picture.

“Taken 2”…MEH! “Taken 2” lacked a lot, climax was rushed; fight scenes weren’t as good and above all me and my mates said exactly was going to happen at the end.

So the question is… Is Taken 3 a repeat of the 2^nd or the first? Unfortunately it’s the 2^nd one all over again.

So firstly let me say that no one actually gets “Taken” in the film which was a condition that Liam Neeson laid down before agreeing to return for this third and hopefully final instalment.

Action wise, there are plenty of gunshots but no sight of blood. The hand-to-hand combat looked more like a playground braw. Even the torture scene is very tame in comparison with a similar and brutally memorable one in the first movie.

Like the second film I saw the ending coming a mile off. Honestly I think “Taken” should have been left at the first, but instead another 2 was made, trying to milk the success of the first maybe? “Taken 3” plays almost like a parody of the original movie.

Really there’s not much to say about this film, it’s a typical revenge action film with nothing really original about it. Almost everything builds up to a crap climax, there’s a bit of a cat and mouse act going on with Forest Whitaker (LAPD Detective Franck Dotzler) and Liam Neeson but again nothing really exciting comes from it.

Disappointed about this film because by the trailer I thought at least the action will be good seen as they killed his ex-wife, oh how wrong was I.

This was my opinion but I have talked to very few people who actually liked the film, so my advice would be check it out and make your own mind up.

By Fiaz Ali

A Good Day to Die Hard

“I’m on vacation”

As I’m sure many of you are aware “A Good Day to Die Hard” has been getting some poor reviews from the critics. As both a movie lover and a Die Hard fan I’m going to give you an unbiased and honest review.

John McClane (Bruce Willis) travels to Russia to help his son Jack (Jai Courtney) who as far he knows is going to prison. John soon finds out that his son is actually a CIA agent who is on a mission to stop a nuclear-weapons heist. The father and son duo are forced to work together as things start to go sour.

After hearing all the bad reviews I walked into the cinema expecting to hate this film with a passion. The only reason I saw it was because I was actually looking forward to it. As I watched the first 15 minutes I had forgotten all the bad stuff and started to enjoy it.

This film is a FUN film, you shouldn’t expect brilliant long dialogs nor a mind blowing plot with various twist and turns, because let’s face facts the other Die Hard films never had any of that! As far as I’m concern the Die Hard franchise is and always will be John McClane going up against terrorists.

In Die Hard it was Hans Gruber and his team taking over the Nakatomi Plaza. In Die Hard 2 rogue military officials took over the control of an International Airport. In Die Hard 3 Simon Gruber had John running round New York playing Simon says with bombs. In Die hard 4 John took on an internet-based terrorist. And now in A Good Day to Die Hard John helps his son take on terrorist against a nuclear-weapons heist. So nothing has changed there regarding the narrative.

Something this film has a lot of is action and humour. The action is good mostly done by CGI; most of the reviews I’ve read said how the CGI is crap which I just don’t see. Explosions, gun fights and car chases, while nothing to write home about are there and good.  The humour is decent, most of which comes from the back and forth John and Jack do which is fun to watch.

Right there’s the pros now for the cons.

The main bad point about the film for me was the lack of a villain! I did that nice little time line above showing you what Die Hard was all about and in every film there was a good bad guy, A Good Day to Die Hard lacks that. I can’t go too much into it without spoiling the film, but that is a major issue.

Other than the whole villain thing the rest are a bit petty but worth noteing. The line “I’m on a vacation” is used way too much, I think it was used about 4 or 5 times. It got to the point every time you heard that line you just wanted to shout out “Yes John we get it!” ok maybe that was just me but you get the idea.

Lastly (and yes I’m going to be one of these guys and agree with the rest of the people) they screwed up John McClane’s “Yippie Kay Ay”. Now I just want to make it clear that I did enjoy Die hard 4, I saw nothing wrong with how they redone the whole “Yippie kay ay motherfu*cker” line. But this time it was done so badly, you can tell that he actually stops at “Mother” and then there’s about 3 seconds of a gap before the sound that was meant to drown out the “Fu*cker” happens.

As a Die Hard fan I’ll say the film is ok, nothing special and definitely not a strong film to end the Die Hard Franchise on, I really hope that Bruce Willis makes one more and gives Die Hard the end it deserves. That being said it is a good film to see the chemistry between John and his son Jack. Also it’s a good film which builds up the character of Jack which will no doubt be in the next instalment.

As a film, again it’s good but nothing special, if you do want to check it out just turn off your brain and enjoy some action, like you would with “The Expendables”.

One last thing to note as I was very surprised at how many people brought little children to this, but there are quite a few f-bombs used.

A Good Day to Die Hard is still in cinemas now.

Rating 3/10

By Fiaz Ali