TAKEN 3

I have waited for this movie for some time now especially since I love the first two parts.

With the same cast ensemble comprising Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills, Maggie Grace as Kim Mills, Famke Janssen as Bryan's ex-wife Lenore St. John, Dougray Scott as Stuart St. John and a new member Forest Whitaker as Inspector Franck Dotlzer, the story progressed rather lazily in the first half an hour until Lenore got murdered. That was when the pace picked up, the plot thickened and the action began.

Liam Neeson didn't seem as intimidating in this movie than when he was in the first movie perhaps because of age, but his voice was still certainly commanding and sexy for his age. Thankfully, Maggie Grace wasn't acting like a teenager and freaking out easily anymore, which was really irritating in the earlier movies.

The rest of the movie was kind of predictable in that no matter how many enemies were up against him, the ex-operative with the help of a few friends in this movie eventually eliminated all of them, except for one. I think the movie has lost some of its lustre and the formulaic success was no longer enough to keep me riveted to the chair.

Will there be a part 4? I don't know and guess it would depend on the box office takings for this movie. 

Bryan Mills with daughter Kim

this will be the last we see of Famke as Lenore

Stuart St. John

Inspector Franck Dotlzer

Bryan dueling with one of the villains Oleg Malankov

THE WOLVERINE

Since "X2: X-Men United" in 2003 when Jean Grey disappeared, a few other X-Men movies were made with Wolverine gaining more onscreen presence. "The Wolverine" made a decade later, is sort of a spin-off movie due to Hugh Jackman's excellent portrayal of the character.

After what appeared to be Jean's death, Wolverine went into hiding out of guilt. His recurring nightmares of Jean beside him, night after night, turned him into a recluse. That was when he was brought to Japan and met Mariko, his love-interest in the comics. I didn't quite like the storyline though, with the Yakuzas and ninjas and the Viper.

For me, the best part of the movie was the easter egg segment, where Magneto and Prof Xavier appeared, and hinted of a huge storm brewing ahead of them, thus uniting both forces together to fight what was coming up.

HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS

I watched this movie a few weeks back and this is yet one of those movies adapted from a fairy tale. It stars Jeremy Renner, the sorely missed Gemma Arterton and Famke Janssen, and tells the tale of two children who escaped from the claws of a witch who lived in a candy house as kids to grow up as witch hunters.

Little did they know that they weren't really abandoned by their parents when they were kids. This was far from the truth. Instead, their mother was a powerful good white witch who refused to use her powers to harm the villagers who hanged her husband to death and burnt her to death. She sent the children away in a bid to protect them from being persecuted. In their hunt to exterminate an entire group of dark witches, the adult siblings chanced upon the truth about their parentage.

After Hansel lost his new found love in another good white witch in the battle with the dark witches, they managed to eradicate all of them and continue to live on as witch hunters.

TAKEN 2

At 56, Liam Neeson sealed his position as an action hero since the 2008 predecessor movie "Taken" which took the box office by surprise. The Irish actor has made many movies since the 80s and filmed quite a number of movies in recent times such as "Clash of the Titans", "Wrath of the Titans", "The Grey", "Batteship". Unlike his younger contemporaries who became action heroes at a younger age, this seasoned and brilliant actor is convincing as a tough secret agent despite his age.

This time round, the movie was set predominantly in Istanbul, which frankly I didn't like. As the CIA Operative Bryan Mills who went to Istanbul on a mission, the fiercely protective husband and father had to single-handedly risked life and limb to rescue his ex-wife Lenore (played by Famke Janssen of "Ex-Men" fame as the character Pheonix) and daughter Kim (played by Maggie Grace) from a legion of his enemies, who were relatives of the men he killed in "Taken", away from his home ground. His job trained him to be a relentless and focused killer with an obsessive compulsive disorder and super-memory who, despite being blindfolded earlier, managed to retrace his steps to the kidnapper's secret hiding place based on his specific set of skills alone.

Seriously, he is not someone to trifle with or whom you want to make enemies of. Especially not after the famous line uttered by him in the first movie to the kidnapper Marko whom took Kim:

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

With the success of "Taken 2", now there are talks of a third movie. If this is true, I am definitely looking forward to it since I am very impressed by his commanding voice and versatility in acting.