That the men of Takers are sharply dressed may be the nicest thing you can say of the film. While not the film’s sole decent feature, it is the facet emblematic of the film’s singular success: the style. Takers sees men dressed to the nines pull off a major heist in that all too common plot of thieves looking for a final payday so they can get out of the game. Can you guess what stands in their way? You guessed it. It’s a single-minded cop, incorruptible in his mission to bring down this notorious band of criminals cutting a trail through his fair city with a series of increasingly brazen robberies. The characters are shallow, the plot over done, and the action sequences barely noteworthy, which might be the only reason you’ll notice that they seem to be the most fashion conscious bandits we’ve ever seen. John Lussenhop attempts to overcome poor writing and acting with a visual flair, but it never comes close to saving this train wreck. Heist fans will be sorely disappointed, leaving its potential audience as fans of Paul Walker or any of the random singers filling up the screen.
At least that’s something. Just not much of it.
Jesse (Chris Brown), A.J. (Hayden Christensen), Jake (Michael Ealy), Ghost (T.I.), Gordon (Idris Elba), and John Rahway (Paul Walker) have a streak of unprecedented robberies under their belt. How they’re doing it baffles authorities and they keep doing it with little to no threat of the police ever catching them in the act. Now, maybe their success has gone to their heads, maybe they needed a bigger challenge, or maybe they just got bored, but the gang is ready for their final heist that will net them a cool $25 million. Considering it’s untaxed, that’s not too shabby. However, there’s a wrinkle in their plan they hadn’t planned on. Officer Jack Welles (Matt Dillon) and his partner Hatcher (Jay Hernandez) have finally caught a break in the case and they put the pieces together just in time to make the final heist unexpectedly complicated.
Did that plot sound oddly familiar to you? It should. It’s the basic plot behind every heist film out there. There are literally dozens, if not hundreds of films that follow this plot step by step, and few of them ever achieve greatness courtesy of the story. Usually, when one of these films gains notoriety, it’s because it has the Rat Pack or one of the most star-studded casts ever (see either of the Ocean’s 11 incarnations) or because of stellar, nuanced performances (Nick Nolte in The Good Thief), or some adrenaline-pumping action sequences or car chases (The Italian Job). It’s not the story. People haven’t found this story surprising in ages. So how does Takers overcome its bland story?
It doesn’t, unless you have a real soft spot for suits. The cast of hip hop professionals and second-rate actors (save for Dillon) can barely keep up with the plot riddled with holes and stocked with more dialogue clichés than anyone should be subjected to in 107 minute span. Christensen has been and remains an incredibly two-dimensional actor, but this time he shares the credit with a script that makes no effort at characterization and instead hopes you’ll get swept away with a bunch of guys hanging around in rooms with curtains of smoke parting as the criminals move back in forth in poor attempts at internal group conflicts that were clearly written with no other purpose than to eat up time until the big heist. The two strongest players in the group are Dillon and Elba, playing opposite sides of the game, but lending the film its only semblances of acting credibility. Yet, you can’t help but feel that Dillon is phoning it in and delivering a knock-off of the same character he played in Armored. Elba always infuses his performances with a little bit of ham, but when the rest of the cast can’t even match that caliber, the ham stands out more than it normally does. Oh, and Zoe Saldana pops in for a totally inconsequential role, there’s no reason an actress as talented as Saldana was needed for this part.
The decent action sequences are the only portion of the film that might warrant hi-def viewing, because other than that the film is barely worth watching, in standard def or otherwise.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The Blu-ray exclusive featurettes are interesting but fall under the typical range including a behind-the-scenes look of the film’s production and detailed accounts of its stunts. After that you have the audio commentary and a music video by T.I. for his song “Yeah Ya Know (Takers)”.
"Takers" is on sale January 18, 2011 and is rated PG13. Action, Crime-Thriller. Directed by John Luessenhop. Written by Peter Allen & Gabriel Casseus and John Luessenhop & Avery Duff. Starring Hayden Christensen, Idris Elba, Jay Hernandez, Matt Dillon, Michael Ealy, Paul Walker, Zoë Saldana, Chris Brown, TI.
