Plot 1. Action 2. 'Taken 3'.

What do you mean "more family-orientated"?

So 2015 kicks off with 'Taken 3' - a much more family-orientated take on the franchise in every sense of that phrase. We spend an interminable amount of time reacquainting ourselves with the Mills family. Poor Bryan, he has so much to contend with - his little girl is now all grown up and pregnant and his estranged wife wants him back in her life. All of this soap opera is of course just a pretext to ratcheting up his pissed off meter for when the inevitable something bad happens.

Alarm bells started ringing even before the film started. What people responded to in the first film was the brutal violence, a ruthless hero and an edgy plot involving sex trafficking. 'Taken 3' has a 12A rating and like 'Expendables 3' the desire to get bums on seats has resulted in a compromised, toned down addition to the franchise. People get shot in the head but there's no blood flying around the screen, no real sense of threat and no impact. It all feels very 'safe' this time out.

Remember that the unique selling point of 'Taken' is Liam Neeson being bigger, smarter and more merciless than the bad guys. He has a "particular set of skills" and part of the fun is seeing him employ them in a determined manner against the clock. Mix in some European locations and realistic car stunts and you've pretty much got your movie right there. All of that is jettisoned this time out. It's less of a 'Taken' sequel and more of a 'The Fugitive' variant as Bryan becomes a murder suspect on the run, out to prove his innocence. Yawn.

Part of the problem is the Los Angeles setting. Instead of the disorientating and threatening European milieu we have a reliance on over familiar locations - storm drains, diners, garages, car parks, Californian mountain roads. By the time a car rolls down a hillside and explodes you'll be thinking you could be watching any cop movie or television show made at any time in the last 40 years. It's all a bit ordinary.

But here's the thing....despite all that it still somehow manages to work. Neeson is as stoic as ever, the plot is as preposterous as it is predictable but it's undeniably entertaining in an undemanding way. I suspect the script started out as its own thing but then got opted with a view to shaping it into a 'Taken' movie. The most interesting element has Forest Whitaker as the lawman assigned to bring Neeson in. It's refreshing to see a genuinely smart detective on the case and he makes a good foil for our hero. Whitaker is fine but he plays his character in much the same way as his role in 'The Shield'. It all adds to the general tv feel of the thing.

Dougray Scott turns up in it too. It's strange to think that this man was once touted as a potential Bond and is now a sort of Poundland version of Gerard Butler. It's a cruel business.

So 'Taken 3' then. A lot of fisticuffs, a fair bit of bang bang shooty bang bang, one confusing and dull car chase and a lot of stupidity. It's okay. A bit better than 'Taken 2'; nowhere near the heights of 'Taken'.

2015 is underway and the bar has been set low.