Takers (2010)

I really liked "Lucky Number Slevin", so I thought I'd go watch this movie too. The bad reviews here troubled me some, but in the end it was well worth it.

The film has a great visual style and is well paced. There is only one subplot that I can think of that we could do without (that drug addict sister) but the rest was well done. The authors were well cast, their acting was good, and I think they played well together. It seemed like they had fun.

The action sequences were nice to look at, the robberies spectacular, lots of stuff gets blown up.

I suggest you watch this movie, you won't be disappointed. Some of you may look for more X and others will find it lacking in Y, but you can't say that this film is bad, that the actors are horrible or that the director doesn't know what he's doing.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and give it a 9, because it is up there with my personal favorites.

Fmovies: I must say this film was entertaining at best. The best performances coming from Matt Dillon and Tip "T.I." Harris. The actions sequences, while very intense, were ruined at times by the shaky camera movements, especially during the chase sequences. The storyline, while it had original elements, was flawed and certain scenes you could see coming from a mile away. The only thing I admire from this film is that it tries to give all of its stars equal screen time and importance, just like the far superior film it tries to emulate "Heat". Takers, attempts to be an heist film with a heart to which the younger generation can connect, but fails to deliver the goods. I commend T.I. for his performance and executive producing this project, but I think it still needed work as far as the storyline and the filming are concerned. My suggestion is to skip it and wait for it on DVD.

I received a bit of hype before seeing Takers. I'm not going to say it is an awful movie. Takers has a bit of style in the reels that's for sure. Just no substance to carry that style.The film is hip in its looks, almost like its wanting to follow a trend. This pop culture stuff is a cliché that films use for success when released over and over.

With some substance in the plot though, it really makes the difference between bad and alright. This ones a bad one and that's unfortunate considering that its really a young stylish fast cash grab for the box office. Only tomorrow to be gone and forgotten.

Not that great of a movie. About below average. 4/10 score.

Takers fmovies. I have wanted to see this movie since the first trailer I saw last year. I am a big fan of heist/action movies. Seeing Idris Elba and Michael Ealy and Paul Walker in the trailer, I knew I would at least get my quotient of eye candy. After seeing some of the reviews for this movie, I had very low expectations.

Takers turned out to be a decent heist movie. They didn't do anything that was all that original. It was pretty predictable. It was just mindless entertainment that I enjoyed watching. I thought there was some good action sequences...I wish there were more of them. There was more melodrama than I was expecting, but I think it helped give the movie an ounce of depth. Don't expect Oscar worthy material or big unexpected plot turns and I think you will end up enjoying it.

This movie is fast-paced and the cinematography (specifically the shaky camera thing) is clever and interesting when it's not irritating. Also, there is some eye candy for the ladies and some of the cast is full of interesting and appealing characters, some who actually do decent acting jobs ("some" is the operative word.) Those are the good points.

Now the other side. I like T.I. as a rapper and even thought he did an okay acting job in ATL a few years ago, but his acting here was just downright criminal. There was one scene in which he dominated the dialog that I actually said out loud, "his acting is so bad, it's offensive." You're actually offended that that is being pushed off as something you should buy as a viewer. You're wondering how no one in the director's booth was offended by it. In fairness, the fast action of the bulk of the movie shields the poor acting a bit, so the blow is blunted a bit. But between his poor acting and Chris Brown's sometimey acting, it was just a lot being asked of the viewer. Speaking of characters, the lack of character development is also a low point of the film. I agree with another commenter that you're asked to feel something for a character who dies, but you feel nothing because you really haven't been given anything to know or care about. And finally as others have stated, the plot is clichéd to the point that you're wondering if it's supposed to be a satire of some sort. But no, no satire. They're seriously trying to wrap Heat and Set it Off and Dead Presidents up in a big bow and pass it off as a new present. Just not a good thing to do.

I rate it a 5 on a 10-point scale because while it's not a great movie, it does hold your attention and as bad as some parts are, it's not the worst movie I've ever seen. So I say giving it about half credit is pretty accurate. In that vain, I won't say you should pay to see this or you shouldn't pay to see it. I say do the 50/50 thing--flip a coin. Either way, the earth won't shatter. This movie is just not that significant either way. It will probably be forgotten pretty soon.

The plot for this film does not need to be explained. It's basically a pastiche of The Italian Job, True Romance and melodramatic clichés.

The third element in the blender, mentioned above, along with a script short on genuine character development (You'll sometimes forget that Hayden Christensen and Zoe Saldana are in it) are distracting for a film which develops a serious tone, but there are positives, depending on your genre preferences.

The film moves along briskly, even as we deal with a cringe-worthy first half, and when the actual robbery gets going, the fun starts. Though the cinematography is modeled too much off of the Bourne-style shaky cam, the set pieces are still very well pulled off.

The extended car chases and shootouts contain a level of energy and suspense that really makes them standout, comparable to similar scenes in the above mentioned films, along with an on-foot chase clearly modeling itself off of the Madagascar chase in Casino Royale. Every car whizzing by, bone crunch or gunshot affects the audience due to mostly- proper use of slow motion, and great editing, both sound and film wise.

The melodrama may make some engaged viewers start laughing due to how it's put on screen, but as the stakes get higher, gels with the storyline.

The main cast, considering the material they are given, do the best they can, and their charisma is enough for us to care about them when the stakes get REALLY high, particularly in the case of Matt Dillon and Idris Elba.

It's highly unoriginal and contains several other elements worthy of nitpicking, but after evaluating how I had spent the past 107 minutes of my life, I think it got the job done.

B-