With the smashing global success of “Taken 1” and “Taken 2,” Irish actor Liam Neeson got a financial windfall filming the currently showing third installment in the action drama film franchise, “Taken 3.”
From being paid a mere $1 million in “Taken 1” shown in 2008, Neeson was paid close to $20 million for reprising his role as retired CIA agent Bryan Mills in “Taken 3.”
That was no longer surprising since the first film of the franchise earned a box office haul of $226 million while “Taken 2,” released in 2012, grossed $346 million in the tills.
Because of his fat paycheck for “Taken 3,” Neeson made it to the list of Forbes’ Highest Paid Actor for the period covering June 2013 to June 2014 with $36 million. He ranked No. 7 in the list headlined by Robert Downey Jr.’s $75 million due mainly to the $1.2 billion massive success of “Iron Man 3,” reports China Topix.
Neeson, who shot to Hollywood fame in Steven Spielberg’s holocaust drama “Schindler’s List” back in 1993, is also reuniting with director Olivier Megaton, who helmed “Taken 2,” for the third installment of the franchise.
Excellent storylines
It is not just the suspense and the action scenes that have made the first two Taken movies clicked among moviegoers. It’s actually the excellent and absorbing storylines of the two films which have endeared them to movie fans.
Of course, that is not to undermine the action scenes in the first two Taken movies. The spleen-venting in “Taken 1” in particular, and the various shootings, stabbings, bone-breakings, and twisted metal car wrecks in both “Taken 1” and “Taken 2” sure were parts of the films’ key highlights, notes The Star.
A writing bummer
Because ex-CIA Bryan Mills is already showing his age in the sequel, the writers of “Taken 3” should have resorted to creativity and invention to keep the formula that has made the first two Taken films very successful.
Unfortunately, they did not do well in that department, leaving the movie to stand on the merits and acting prowess of Neeson and his co-stars.
In “Taken 3,” Bryan becomes a prime suspect in a murder and goes on the run from the LAPD, headed by Inspector Dotzler, played by Forest Whitaker. Keeping the excitement going even through the early stages, Dotzler happens to be always a step behind Mills in his pursuit.
It turns out that the murder, to which Mills is being accused for, is the handiwork of Russian gangsters, who is led by former Spetsnaz Olve Malenkov, played by Sam Spruell. There is also the problem with the shady connections of Stuart (played by Dougray Scott), the man who is married to Bryan’s ex-wife Leonore, played by Famke Janssen.
Burden with a sloppy scriptwriting, “Taken 3” is a bummer compared to the first two films, story-wise that is, but at least Liam Neeson as Bryan tried to redeem it with his usual superb acting, not to mention the franchise’s signature action scenes.