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Isaac Feldberg’s 10 Worst Movies Of 2015

I have absolutely no qualms about calling 2015 a pretty great year for cinema. Across the board, Hollywood brought its A-game. Indie-circuit auteurs like David Robert Mitchell (It Follows) and Miroslav Slaboshpitsky (The Tribe) upended genres and created some new ones; big-studio blockbusters like Magic Mike XXL and Star Wars: The Force Awakens betrayed real heart and heft, Pixar returned with a vengeance, most of the requisite remakes were actually good (and some of them - *cough* *cough* Creed *cough* - were downright great), and action cinema in particular flourished like it has during only a few years before, delivering some legendary characters and instantly iconic sequences (and not just in Mad Max: Fury Road).

7) Taken 3

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I greatly enjoyed the first Taken, which kicked off Liam Neeson’s second career wind as an action star while delivering some terrific action sequences within a wonderfully tight script. But this incompetently made, atrociously written trilogy topper is an affront to everything that was good about the original.

As “directed” by Olivier Megaton (and I use the term “directed” loosely, because an overly energetic puppy with a camera taped on top of its head could have done a better job), Taken 3 is a mind-boggling failure, devoid of even midway-decent performances, borderline-comprehensible action scenes or mildly interesting story beats.

Neeson has done some very solid actioners over the past few years, but this is without question his lowest point as an actor, and none of the people who worked on its appearance or script should ever be allowed near a film set again.