When you watch the trailer for Takers, it may not seem that original or impressive. The only thing that may catch your interest is the cast. But when you actually see the movie, you get more out of it than you’d expect. It is fun and well done, and the cast is pretty cool. Director John Luessenhop makes them look cool. All the guys dressed in suits while driving fancy cars. They all have that swagger about them.
Idris Elba, Hayden Christensen, Michael Ealy, Paul Walker and Chris Brown portray notorious criminals who pull off the perfect bank robberies by paying attention to every detail and never leaving any evidence behind. Then they lay low until the next big steal comes their way. But when one last heist is presented to them by an old friend named Ghost (played by rap superstar T.I.), plans change and a lot more money is on the line. Ghost took the fall and was sent to prison for nine years and never told on any of them. But can he be trusted or can he trust them? That’s the fun of this movie. You have to wait and find out.
Matt Dillon plays a detective who is headstrong and adamant about catching every single one of these guys and bringing them down. Even though he is hot on their trail, these guys are stylish and smooth when it comes to their appearance and their way of doing business. I do not think I am telling you anything you don’t already know, but all of these guys finally come face to face and it is a shootout.
Almost everyone does a decent job acting in this. There is not much character depth and none of them have particularly unique characteristics. T.I. is practically playing T.I., but he fits right in with the rest of them. Walker plays the same guy he does in the Fast and Furious movies, and Elba is almost the same dude from The Losers. Dillon is the main performance that sticks out in the movie. His approach to playing the detective shows some emotion. We actually get to see his friendship with his partner (played by Jay Hernandez) and his relationship with his daughter. It gives us a glimpse in to what his career and dedication to his job has cost him.
Takers catches you by surprise because it could have been a copycat of so many crime thrillers that we have seen in the past. But it is an above-average crime thriller because you take interest in what the characters are doing and if they will get away with it. We expect double-crossing and not everything going as planned. Some scenes are anti-climactic and fall flat and there are a few characters you don’t really care about (like Elba’s cracked-out sister). However, Takers takes you on an entertaining ride with some well-paced action and cool actors just being cool.
Brandon Vick is a member of The Music City Film Critics’ Association and the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and the star of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast. Follow him on Twitter @SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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