Forest Whitaker turns in one of his sleepiest performances; no one else seems to be trying very hard either, yet director Olivier Megaton delivers some good chases, fist fights, and shots of Neeson looking glum.

A movie that thinks the way to earn our knuckle-biting is to be as dull as hell for 35 minutes, then send a giant shipping container hurtling along the interstate. But you yawn through that, too.

There's something sluggishly formulaic about the rollout of smackdowns, chase scenes and general mayhem involving wrecked cars. And a plot point involving warm bagels is downright ludicrous.

The good news is “Taken 3” is better than the last film, but not by a wide margin.