Pierre Morel’s “Taken” is far from being a classic of action, but the hook of sexual traffickers inadvertently kidnapping the daughter of a ridiculously fatal CIA agent worked well enough to make the film a decent time afternoon, in particular with an actor of the caliber of Liam Neeson as Papa Bear. The moviegoers have proven to be in large numbers and obtained precisely what they paid to see (judging by A-Cinemascore of the film), so 20th Century Fox ordered a suite which made drugs of action not exercised that Neeson’s daughter did not go again. They understood correctly (although this time his ex-wife was kidnapped) and marked even more important success. They therefore returned to the well a third time and did roughly the same amount of dough without breaking the bank with the budget.
There was no “taken 4” (if you do not count The one with Jimmy Kimmel), which flies in the face of the conventional wisdom of the studio franchise which prevents you from pumping the waste payments until the waste ceases to be reasonably profitable. You might say that Maggie Grace is kidnapping credibility several times, but a), they have skillfully waited for the third act to remove it in “Taken 3”, b), you could give her a girl for the wicked to kidnap (which would make great people Neeson twice like crazy) and c) Charles Bronson made five films “Death Wish” in which the filmmakers continued to find members of the family and friends killed so that he can take revenge.
So why did the “taken” franchise flame after the third film brought in $ 326 million with a budget of $ 48 million?
Liam Neeson was no longer taken with the franchise
The main reason The “Take” film franchise He has not yet become a squilogy is that Neeson, having reinvented unexpectedly as a star of the action, said that all the effort had become completely silly. “It is only so many times your daughter can be taken,” He exclaimed to Stephen Colbert. He joked by saying that he should ask the kidnappers to take his daughter in a fourth film.
Neeson didn’t even want to “take 3.” As he said to Graham Norton“I said the second [installment] would not happen, and I said that I would not make a third if someone was taken. “He only did the second sequel because the filmmakers went” Wish “with him and killed his wife (Famke Janssen), which he thought would not be as insulting for the public.
As the Slasher franchises have taught us, you can insult the intelligence of the public as long as you serve enough red meat. You cannot do it with the man who played Oskar Schindler in mind, which is why the “taken” team changed speed and made a prequel TV series for NBC in 2017. The problem here was that nobody never cared of Bryan Mills; They only watched the films for the bloody extrajudicial shenanigans of Neeson. And that is why the series “Take” lasted only 26 episodes.
Now that it has been 11 years since “taken 3”, you might think that Neeson would become a little nostalgic and would consider returning to this role. Neeson, however, is now 72 years old and, in 2015, said to the goalkeeper He may have two years of action movies in him. “I am in a very, very well in career place,” he said. “The success of the films certainly” taken “… Hollywood seems to see me in a different light.” He continued saying: “I sent a lot of scripts to the action, which is great. I don’t hit him. It’s very flattering. But there is a limit, of course.”
So you should probably exclude it to James Bond too.
