Posted 09.01.2010
Dave on film: “Takers” has nothing to give
This cliche-ridden heist flick made the audience laugh
By Dave TaylorReview: Takers
The premise of Takers couldn't have been better tailored to my cinematic interests. A team of criminals who engineer and pull off perfect robberies, with timing down to the fraction of a second, deciding to do one last job, even as they're suspicious of the source of the information, while an obsessive cop is hot on their trail, determined to break the case.
Unfortunately, the film itself was so sloppy and riddled with clichés that it quickly stopped being an homage and became more akin to a heist movie satire. By the end of the film, the audience was laughing at the melodramatic shoot-out, aghast at how a film that had started out strong had fallen to such abysmal lows.
The tough cop is Lt. Jack Welles (Matt Dillon) and the gang leader is Gordon (Idris Elba), with his partner John (Paul Walker). The rest of the gang are A.J. (Hayden Christensen), Jesse (Chris Brown) and Jake (Michael Ealy), and it's clear through both wardrobe and cinematography that the vision was to have a very stylish group in the mold of the Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., etc). The problem? Sinatra and team were unquestionably cool, but Christensen, Walker and team are all fashion but no style, like mannequins in a boutique shop window.
If you like heist films, there are a number of terrific alternatives to Takers that are a better use of your time, including The Italian Job (either the wonderful original or the entertaining recent remake). In fact, at one point in the film, TJ refers to them "going all Italian Job," but Takers never got near that level of style and grace and collapses under its own pretensions.
The opening heist at the "Federal California Bank" that establishes the expertise of the gang is exciting, and when they execute their ingenious getaway, I was delighted -- expecting the rest of the film to demonstrate the same clockwork timing and synchronized efforts. Retrospectively, though, there's a huge flaw in their getaway plan that I won't ruin for you - in case you ignore my review and see this film anyway - but I'll ask you this: how would they have gotten away if the news chopper wouldn't have landed on the roof?
The film gets into high gear when the mysterious "Ghost" (rapper T.I.) is released from prison and comes to the gang with a plan for a big $25 million armored car heist. We learn that he was part of the gang but after being shot left to be arrested while everyone else escaped. But is he trustworthy, especially given that his former girlfriend Rachel (Zoe Saldana) is now with Jake (Ealy)?
Not enough clichés there? Sprinkle in a posse of mad Russian criminals with stringy hair, tattoo-covered biceps and enough vodka to drown the scriptwriter responsible for this additional idiocy, and it starts to become obvious that directory Luessenhop never learned that less is more.
I don't have much positive to say about Takers. A good premise, an acceptable cast, solid cinematography and location shoots, but so infected by clichés and tired action film tropes that it completely fell apart. No one stayed for the credits in the screening I attended. People were more interested in escaping as quickly as possible.
Dave Taylor has been watching movies for as long as he can remember. Along the way he’s become a nationally recognized expert on technology, an accomplished writer, and award-winning public speaker and blogger. You can find his film writing at www.DaveOnFilm.com and follow his film commentary on Twitter at @FilmBuzz or just email him at taylor@intuitive.com.
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