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SYNOPSIS: After
pulling off a spectacular series of brilliantly planned bank
robberies, a notorious team of professional criminals attempts
one last heist, a once-in-a-lifetime job with a $25 million
payoff. And all that stands in their way is a cop hell-bent
on doing whatever it takes to solve the case and bring the
"Takers" down. Chris Brown and Hayden Christensen costar in
an adrenaline-rushed thrill ride packed with twists and turns.
MOVIE
REVIEW:
It
takes a cast of at least nine recognizable faces to front
the movie and four credited writers to churn out "Takers".
Surely, you expect a much better craft heist movie from the
filmmakers and cast members.
Takers refer to a bunch of robbers collectively consist of
leader, Gordon (Idris Elba), John (Paul Walker), A.J. (Hayden
Christensen), brothers Jake (Michael Ealy) and Jesse (Chris
Brown) who has just successfully completed their latest heist
by escaping on a television network chopper. But trouble brewed
when an ex-member of their group, Ghost (Tip T.I. Harris)
convinces them to embark on their next crime spree.
Even before it reaches the halfway mark, the story aspect
and emotional core of the movie has fallen into pieces. Other
than some slick shots of the main cast driving some cool automobiles,
smoking cigars and drinking expensive alcohols, we know nuts
about this group of Takers except for minor details including
Jake and Jesse having an estranged father, Jake’s girl
Lilly (played by the prolific Zoe Saldana) happens to be Ghost’s
ex and a redundant subplot involving Gordon’s pothead
sister. Perhaps director/writer John Luessenhop is trying
to show the more humane side of this group of cool robbers
but then again, it doesn’t fits into the whole story
structure or the genre.
To make matters worse, there is another story angle on the
good guys, cops Jack (Matt Dillion) and Hatcher (Jay Hernandez)
whom fails to deserve any of the audience’s empathy
either. Jack is so obsessed with his job that he brought his
little girl along during his investigations and well, Hatcher
actually took money that doesn’t belong to him. There
are so many ongoing and clichés that you wonder what’s
Luessenhop brewing in the end.
Seriously, it doesn’t matter. And that applies to the
poorly shot and edited frantic action sequences that Hollywood
is so fond of. There is a cool sequence of Chris Brown character
doing some solid parkour jumps but owing to the immensely
distracting shaky cam effect, we simply couldn’t care
less. The sudden switch to John Woo-esque bullet ballet moment
is another embarrassing attempt to up the cool factor.
"Takers" has no style or substance to even please
the casual audience. There are simply too many heist movies
in the past for examples, "Heat", "Ocean’s
Eleven" and "The Italian Job" to be rewatched
than the latter. "Takers" stand alongside another
heist movie, "Armored" (also a Screen Gem release
and starring yet again Matt Dillion for the record) to be
classified as unwatchable in recent years.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
Filmmaker & Cast Commentary: Director John Luessenhop
and Producers Will Packer, Jason Geter, and "T.I."
Harris gets together to provide filmmaking anecdotes that
will only please hardcore fans of Takers. There’s also
the "Yeah Ya Know (Takers)" Music Video
by Tip T.I. Harris to round up the extras.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The
visual presentation is clear and sharp though the occasional
digital shots are soft and unfocused. The sound effects such
as gunfire, explosions are standard fare and not one that
stands out among the crowd.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Linus Tee
Posted on 28 January 2011
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