10 Most Disappointing Action Movie Sequels Ever

8. Taken 3

Taken 3
20th Century Fox

Taken was originally supposed to be released straight to home video, but it turned out to be a massive success, earning over $225m at the box office and launching Liam Neeson's unlikely late-career renaissance as one of Hollywood's most bankable action heroes despite pushing 60.

The sequel was more of the same, rehashing familiar plot beats but still giving fans the chance to see Neeson decimate countless henchmen with a barrage of bullets and throat-punches, but the third installment is where the wheels well and truly fell off.

The studio-mandated PG-13 rating neutered the entire appeal of the franchise, leaving Neeson to creak his way through the bloodless and sanitized set-pieces, with the actor looking about as bored as the audience as he goes through the motions with one eye clearly on his reported $20m paycheck, and who can blame him?

Nothing encapsulates the cack-handed approach to Taken 3 better than the movie's foot-chase sequence, which is edited to within an inch of its life to the point of incomprehension, and is entirely down to the leading man's admitted hatred of running onscreen.

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