[REVIEW] Taken 3 (2015) Unrated Blu-Ray

At the start of the year Liam Neeson rounded off his Taken trilogy with Taken 3.  Most were hoping for something superior to the weak first sequel.  What they instead got was a kick in the balls, soft ass shit, to use a quote from The Rock (1996), complete with violent camera shaking, possibly the worst ever.  Then an unrated cut was announced for Blu-Ray, the superior version of the movie, it was said.  Which begs the question, if it was the superior cut of the movie then why not show it to people at the cinema?  Must every movie like this be released in stages?  What next, DLC (downloadable content?) for movies?  Anyway, here is our review of this so-called ‘unrated cut’ on Blu-Ray.

The story has Bryan Mills framed for the murder of his wife, he then uses a particular set of skills to evade the law and, funnily enough, break so many additional laws in the process that surely even after they ultimately find him innocent of murder, they’d have another life sentence waiting for him anyway.  Beating up 15+ policemen and causing untold thousands in criminal damage?  Setting off explosives in a crowded high school anyone?  Surely a minimal re-write would’ve cleared up the many absurdities in Taken 3, those just mentioned being among the least offensive.  Taken 3 jumps the shark, breaks the rules, shakes the camera and insults our intelligence.

But what about the unrated cut?!  Forget it.  While it is seven minutes longer, and it does make the movie more violent and foul mouthed, it doesn’t solve the larger problems which ruin this movie.  You can fix terminal camera work with an F-bomb or more gratuitous blood splattering.  It’s a pity because as you’d expect, this is a heavyweight transfer.  Deep colours, filmic atmosphere and buttressed by a booming and instructive 5.1 DTS-HD soundtrack.

The extras are pathetic.  Three ‘documentaries’ that are no longer than four minutes each, i.e. YouTube sized stuff.  Hell even YouTube favours videos that go longer than 10 minutes.  Why bother, other than to boast that there are extras in there and avoid the ridicule of being one of those releases that only has a trailer?  I’d give the movie itself a four out of ten.  And the ‘unrated’ cut a five out of ten, along with this disc release.  I wouldn’t bother buying this one.  There are other releases out there, waiting, such as the 30th anniversary Commando Blu-Ray (director’s cut).