Takers is a stylish little mess.

Of course, I love a good heist film, and behold: the early workings of the Takers super-team prove to be a veritable larceny ballet!

Unfortunately, the elaborate sub-plots then grabbed control of the movie and shuffled the life out of it. Plenty of hyper editing, hints at the Crank ambitions of director Luessenhop, but an underlying leaden spirit prevents Takers from ever quite achieving escape velocity. In the end, the "tragedy writ large" gong is ringing out on the hip-hoperatic soundtrack and in the mini-epic death scenes. It's too much, too late.

There's a lot to like about Takers, but it's dramatic resonance fades far too fast - - in the end the only toll to be heard is of an opportunity missed... an opportunity missed... an opportunity missed...


3 out of 5.

Mostly predictable, but really, really entertaining. I liked it a lot.

T.I. is an awful actor, though.

Quite entertaining. Certainly more than run-of-the-mill if not great.

The action scenes are definitely the best part of this and certainly have new direction, if the heist part of the film falters.

Now I know why this handily destroyed Armoured at the box office.

B

Takers

As part of my Paul Walker-athon, I watched Takers. Now, I've known about this film for years. It came out in that time of The Expendables, RED and The Losers group action movies, but I never gave it the light of day. That was a mistake. What a great action movie this is!

Idris Elba commands the entourage, Paul Walker is like his Rusty Ryan, Hayden Christensen is the crazy tech/mechanical whizz, and the two black guys (I have no idea who they are) are also likeable too. Matt Dillon is the cop chasing them down, and Zoe Saldana is one of the black guys' fiancee. Very nice cast and great story. The film is basically a cool chase flick. It's well executed and it makes a change to see a movie not go off on stupid side stories. It keeps it straight down the line and focused. There's a double-cross and the usual shit happens, but it's just more entertaining than the usual fare. My only criticism is that Ghost should have gotten a bigger comeuppance. This movie kind of has it all; the over-long chase sequence, the shootouts, Russians, heists, bad ass characters, women, a few one liners...just everything for a good actioner. Apart from an abrupt ending, I really enjoyed it.

I look forward to Takers 2.

B+

No Takers 2

Yeah..that was just a joke.

It's not far fetched. There could have been a sequel.

I would have liked one. But I don't ever expect to see one. Especially now that Paul Walker is dead.

Have you ever seen Armored? You might like that.

I haven't, but I will check it out.

I liked Takers a lot actually. It's a 90s action thriller, but 15 years too late. It doesn't rely on shitty CGI, it's just great. I enjoyed it more than The Losers.