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

Snitch

How far would you go to save your son?

Snitch is based on a true story of a father, John Matthews (Dwayne Johnson), who makes a deal with the DEA to go undercover and become a police informant to gain access to a drug cartel in order to lower his son’s prison sentence. In doing so he risks the lives of his family and himself.

I went into this film with high expectations, personally I’m a big fan of Dwayne Johnson (In and outside of the ring) and I honestly think he is possibly the only wrestler to make a successful transition from wrestling to acting. He is a talented person, not only is he good at comedy and action but he delivers great performances in drama based films, most of which are either a true story or based on true events.

With Dwayne Johnson’s past credits such as “Walking Tall” and “Gridlock Gang” I had full confidence that Snitch would be a good thriller with some good emotional scenes. Was I wrong? Not at all! In fact I think this is probably Dwayne Johnson’s best performance yet. Everything was spot on. The story was good, the characters were built up at a good pace and the performance was brilliant. I was actually surprised at how good Dwayne Johnson portrayed John Matthews a man who would go to any lengths to get his son back.

As well as Dwayne Johnson’s brilliant performance, John Bernthal also gave an excellent performance as an ex-con who is just trying to live an honest life.

The action is not over exaggerated like most of the films these days which adds to the realism of the film. The film also runs at a good pace which gives the film a more believable and realistic feel.

All in all I strongly recommend this film, buy it rent it whatever but check it out.

Rating 9/10

By Fiaz Ali

Identity Thief

“She’s having the time of his life”

Here we have a film that has been getting a lot of hatred from a lot of people. Despite that Identity Thief does what it’s meant to do as a comedy and entertains you.

Diana (Melissa McCarthy) is living it up in the outskirts of Miami, buying anything she desires, money isn’t a problem, well it kind of is because she’s an identity thief. Things start to get complicated when Diana steals the identity of an accounts rep Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman). When Sandy finds out he plans with the local police department to go and find her and bring her back for a full confession in hope to get his life back on track. However it’s not as simple as Sandy thinks.

The film is both funny and entertaining, I was expecting a film filed with slapstick humour but was surprised to see that there was actually a proper plot and the slapstick humour was kept to a minimum.

Wasn’t really a big fan of Jason Bateman but he’s starting to grow on me so to speak. First saw him in “Smoking Aces” and while he made me laugh a bit he didn’t really leave a lasting impression on me. He was decent in “Hancock” but where I really started to like him was in “Horrible Bosses” and “The Change-Up”.

I haven’t seen much of Melissa McCarthy other than in “Bridesmaids” but I personally like her. Something that I absolutely hate is the fact that this movie is getting a lot of hatred because she’s in it, not just because she’s in it but it’s the fact that she’s overweight! I can’t believe how silly some people can be. Why the hell should the fact that Melissa McCarthy is overweight be such a big problem?  Should that be a good reason for this film to get bad reviews or hate? Grow up people. Ok so that’s my little rant over.

Something that came as a surprise to me was the fact that Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. AKA T.I was in the film, didn’t see him in the trailer. He’s not in the film a whole lot but about 90% of the scenes that he’s in are both laugh out loud funny and memorable. Genesis Rodriguez also joins T.I in the film, she’s a pleasure to look at, honestly a very sexy woman. She hasn’t been in much but you might remember her from “Man On A Ledge”.

Honestly the film is decent, is it the best comedy ever? No. but it is entertaining and it is funny.

Identity Thief is in cinemas March 22^nd.

Rating 5/10

By Fiaz Ali