Takers: Movie Review

Takers is what happens when half of Danny Ocean’s crew is combined with the team from The Italian Job, and the assassins from 1998′s The Big Hit. These are professional thieves, who dress nice, drive fast cars (and bikes), and aren’t afraid to kill someone when it comes to their money. Takers isn’t a particularly special heist movie but the actors try their best to make it one (and they look pretty good while doing it).

Here’s our review…

The Players:

• Director: John Luessenhop
• Screenwriters: John Luessenhop, Peter Allen, Gabriel Casseus, Avery Duff
• Cast: Paul Walker, Idris Elba, Matt Dillon, Michael Ealy, Hayden Christensen, Zoe Saldana, Tip “T.I. Harris, Chris Brown, Jay Hernandez
• Cinematography: Michael Barrett
• Original Music By: Paul Haslinger

The Plot:

A group of career criminals are coaxed into performing an elaborate heist at the insistence of one of their former crew members. Not only is the job difficult but they only have a few days to plan (compared to the usual year) and their “inside” contacts are less than trustworthy. Hot on their tale is an overworked cop, who won’t rest until he brings the thieves to justice. Throughout his investigation and their preparation for the gig, the lines of good and bad become blurred.

The Good:

• The Action: The trailer doesn’t do this film justice when it comes to the action. There are some slow-motion John Woo style shoot outs in this movie, along with a great Parkour sequence featuring Chris Brown pummeling through downtown Los Angeles. The sequences look so good because they’re all practical. The gun shots, the car crashes, the fight scenes, they’re all solid and appear real.
• Idris Elba: The British actor plays the leader and co-founder of the crew (along with T.I.’s character) and he’s the center of it all. No move is made without his consent and he’s believable as a patriarchal figure amongst this group of grown men. He has the screen presence to pull it off.

The Bad:

• Dialogue: There’s a lot of repetitive dialogue. “Goddammit” was used more times than I can count, even in situations when it didn’t need to be. Also, there were several corny lines used such as “It’s Showtime!” and “Let’s get paid!” They were forced attempts to sound hip.
• ADR: The dubbing used was terrible especially towards the end during the actual heist. There are a lot of wide shots used and the director probably wasn’t able to pick up good audio so he had the actors go back and do ADR. Unfortunately, the words don’t match their mouths and instead of sounding as if it was happening in the moment, it sounds like an out of place narration.
• Cliches: Several stereotypical situations that we always see in action movies rear their ugly head. Three of them play a huge part in the story so I won’t spoil it for you, but their easy to spot. The light bulb will go off and you’ll say to yourself, “I’ve seen this before!”
• T.I. Harris: He’s one of the main characters in the film and it’s hard to watch his scenes because his acting is so bad. He over exaggerates all of his lines, and half the time you can’t understand him because of his thick Southern accent. How is it that Elba uses his British accent yet recites his dialogue clearly, and T.I. doesn’t?

Overall:

Takers is surprisingly entertaining. The acting and the story isn’t much but there are several sequences that are worth a second look.

Rating: 7/10

Takers hits theaters on August 27, 2010.

Photo Gallery:

Trailer:

Do you plan on seeing Takers this weekend?