Takers

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.

Loved it. This movie is a quintessential guy movie. No wasted dialogue or subplots not directly related to the main plot. All comparisons to this work are nowhere close to what lies at the heart of this film. If you want to complain about the Italian Job trick it's pointless because T.I.'s character points it out that he wants to do an "Italian Job," snatch and grab. Needless to say it goes a bit differently. This is a unique take on a classic premise. This film is all about the point of view it follows. Guy goes to jail, doesn't turn on his friends, guy gets released, friends worry about future police contact and being seen with a marked man, things get sketchy. These are very believable ideas and a fresh spin. Too many times in movies you're left thinking there is no way someone could pull that off and then things become silly. Not here. If you feel the need to compare Takers to another film it's basically a sexed up hipper Heat (a complement because it's another gritty believable crime drama). Right down to the high rollers, armored truck, and black duffel bags used to carry the load. Only instead of Michael Sizemore making a run for it with a trunk load of dough you have bad boy Chris Brown showing off his dexterity as he tries to allude being captured. If you know anything about film making, every director and writer gets influenced from previous works. The very first movies got influenced from great literary pieces. So, to complain about similarities is ignorant. This isn't a synopsis so I won't waste your time summarizing the movie. Highlights for me where it got stimulating and raw were the fight scene with Hayden Christensen (laying down the law) and the free running getaway chase scene with Chris Brown (sic). I'm a theatre arts senior so I can appreciate quality film making when I see it. Old school action without the seizure inducing over digitalizations. I used to be a computer arts major. Boring, not to mention tedious no matter how fun it is to watch. Not needed here. All biases aside, this was a great film. It's quick, witty, detailed, fashionable, and above all believable seemingly without trying. For everyone complaining about T.I.'s acting get your head examined. For one, he basically is this character in real life so whatever he does is believable. Do you not know that he did just get out of prison for being set up by the FEDs for purchasing an arsenal. T.I. is one of the best cross profession actors out there (including Will Smith who is also great). This movie took some of the best young talent and gave them a script which brought out their better qualities. The ensemble was brilliant in it's own right. You get Christensen, Elba, Dillon, Hernandez, Walker, T.I., the infamous Brown all co-starring and pulling it off like they've been friends for years. What I liked the most about this film is that it's all substance and no meandering into pointless directions. If anything it could have gone into even more background information about the characters. The fact is, it doesn't have to. This is the world that is created where everyone is on a need to know basis, even the audience. We get all of the meat with very little fat. If you don't like this movie you must have an aversion to action movies and or be really feminine. If you're a guy and don't absolutely dig this flick, I'm pulling your man card.

Great movie, i enjoyed this movie from start to finish, i believe the acting is on par and plot is interesting, for anyone aged 16 - 25, i would say you are going to like this movie, older people will enjoy it too but i can only really speak for my age group, it's fun, it's fast, the characters are believable and near the end you cant actually tell what is going to happen so it will keep u thinking, worth watching, and in a year or two it will be worth re-watching, i was excited while watching this film it has a certain buzz to it and I'm sure most other people will get that buzz too. I don't want to give out any spoilers because i believe its better to watch a movie not knowing what the next scene has installed for the viewer. 9/10. GOOD FILM

Let me start by saying I am a movie buff. I go to the movies at least 2xs a month & love a variety of films. Takers is a good movie. The movie is basically about some guys who are professional bank robbers. I don't mean those ones who just walk in & say give me all your money. Professionals who can tap into the video systems, elevator systems, & use a lot of C4. Pretty basic movie to follow. Nothing deep or thought provoking like inception. Just a good old fashion bank robbery story. But this is a review so let me start with the bad parts. 1. Not a lot of character development. While we are introduced to the characters this movie doesn't spend an hour telling you about the characters backgrounds or doing the cheezy flashbacks to when Ghost (T.I) got shot & sent to jail. 2. Did not really understand why Ghost (T.I) wanted to set up the whole crew when a. they saved his money from the heist he got caught in & b. the only person who betrayed him was Jake ( Michael Ealy). Other than those 2 points I didn't see anything worth mentioning. I am not one of those people who complain about the camera controls or the lighting. I come into movies with an expectation to be entertained not looking for a technical & mechanical masterpiece. I could care less about the lighting as long as the it isn't in the way & the story is good. Okay now one to the good parts: 1. There were 2 high famous music entertainers in the story; Chris Brown & T.I. Where other directors would have tried to make them the focal piece of the story & have them in every scene. This director used them as supporting cast members & it played out beautifully. Each had about a 30 min scene where they shined & the story focused on them. Chris Brown (Jesse) had a great chase scene where he is jumping over cars & doing acrobatic flips. Very entertaining. T.I (Ghost) has a very big ending where he is great. 2. Action Action Action. While I know this story has been done a few times this summer in their defense this movie was slated to come out to come out last year but T.I went to jail so it was pushed back a year. So I can't fault them for that. The action was great. Blowing streets, lots of gun shots, & killing. Just great. 3. Lack of character development. I hate movies that spend 1hr over explaining things. Action movies are about actions. If I want deep character development I will go watch a chic flick. So while I think more character development could have been done, I am happy it wasn't to some extent. 4. The cast was amazing. Marianna Jean- Baptiste, Idris Elba, Chris Brown, Paul Walker, Matt Dillion & etc all were great. No one dropped the ball. Each character was believable & showed off their talents. So in short... this is a good movie. Don't go in expecting anything but an opportunity to be entertained & you will love it.

(Synopsis) A group of five exceptional bank robbers have been able to successfully rob several banks with such perfect execution that the police do not have a single clue to capture them. These criminals treat each robbery as a business plan that works. First, they plan each job with clockwork precision and are extremely careful in not leaving any evidence behind. Second, they fence the money to get it clean. Third, they all lay low for one year between jobs to not bring any attention to themselves. They decide to pull off one last heist that will be their biggest score, by taking out an armored-car. Their meticulous planning of robbing banks is thrown out the window, because of the short time frame to do the job, and the large amount of cash they will split. This may be the break the police have been waiting for, when this band of thieves finally makes a mistake. (My Comment) The bank robbers were Hayden Christensen, Michael Ealy, Idris Elba, Paul Walker, and singer Chris Brown. The police were Matt Dillon and Jay Hermandez. As you can see, there are some good actors playing the main parts in this movie. That being said, the script is the biggest problem with this movie. All of the actors did a fine job of acting, but most of the writing was a waste. The armored-car robbery was just so unrealistic and stupid. You would think that you would have someone to root for in the movie, but you would be wrong, because I didn't care what happened to any of the characters. There were some good chase scenes during the movie, but that was about all that I liked. The stunt work was amazing, and the pace was fast. However, this is one movie that you can wait for the DVD. (Screen Gems, Run Time 1:47, Rated PG-13) (4/10)

Heists, robberies, thieves all seems very attractive words when it comes to movie business. And some names like Italian Job, Oceans 11 have proved to be the brim of excitement and thrill and made movie history bit more vivid and interesting. However not always this is true. Even though some movies come out with stunning trailers and impressive cast they fail to pull out the obvious, the story and the drama. And I think 'Takers' fail in the same spot. 'Takers' is a story about a gang of thieves who live luxurious life from the money they manage to rob. Well informed, organized and trained in their livelihood of taking what belongs to others, they seem to know what they are doing. But one day their history starts to bite them in their back and meanwhile a restless cop starts to sniff his way up to their doorstep. In between thundering loud bullet exchanges and lightning fast pursuits 'Takers' have its moments of thrill and suspense. And even the cast is not bad. Eye candy for the woman viewers for sure with Paul Walker and Hayden Christensen in front seats of the whole game the movie, but has poor female characters presentation. The hot Zoe Saldana represents a bit of woman on the movie but her face time is quite unnoticeable. Even though the action, cinematography, cast is quite good there are certain key areas where 'Takers' fail to deliver. One big failure is the plot. There is no magic in it. Looks Cliché and quite predictable if you are a fan of heist movies all along. And the character development is very poor. You hardly get to know any character so you don't actually feel anything towards them when the story throws emotional moments at you. So the impressive cast is not actually worth it after all. 'Takers' is a thrill ride with a big emptiness surrounding it. I won't consider watching it again unless it's free on HBO and its a lazy jobless day.

'TAKERS': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five) An impressive diverse cast of mid-level celebrities and some pretty stunning action scenes highlight this bank robber / obsessed cop heist film directed by newcomer John Luessenhop. The cast includes Matt Dillon, Idris Elba, Paul Walker, Hayden Christensen (who after having to deliver such awful dialog and mellow drama in the last three 'STAR WARS' films has actually done pretty well for himself career-wise, compared to like Mark Hamill or Carrie Fisher), Jay Hernandez, Zoe Saldana, Michael Ealy, Jonathon Schaech, pop singer Chris Brown and rapper T.I. (Brown and T.I. Also executive produced the film). Like 'THE EXPENDABLES' this film made the smart choice of putting all these actors together, any one or even two by themselves wouldn't have drawn much attention or cash but adding them all together made for a flashy looking film (It made $21 million in it's first weekend, that's pretty impressive for this type of film). The movie is a pretty routine cops and robbers film, sort of a second rate 'HEIST', but it's also surprisingly entertaining! The film follows a team of five expert and professional bank robbers (Elba, Walker, Christensen, Brown and Ealy) as they team up with an ex-partner of theirs (T.I.), who was just released from prison, on a dangerous armored truck heist, worth $20 million. The movie also focuses on an obsessed cop (Dillon) hot on their trail and his seemingly more 'by the book' partner (Hernandez). Drama ensues as the 'loose canon' cop neglects his young daughter and the bank robbers feel friction and mistrust for their ex-partner. There's also a side story revolving around the crooks leader (Elba) and his drug addicted sister (played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste). For the most part the characters are underdeveloped and what is developed isn't something we haven't seen hundreds of times before but the cast adds a lot of character and charm to their roles. Each actor is cast perfectly in his or her part (although the female parts are pretty small); Dillon and Elba are always at their best but actors like Walker and Christensen are actually given a brief chance to shine in movies like this. The action scenes are also stunning. The two heists are extremely impressive and there's a breathtaking foot chase scene! The movie is surprisingly entertaining. I went into the movie expecting to be mildly amused but I was hooked for the most part, largely due to the cast and action. Watch our review show, 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNa6Ky58lm8

If there were an "absurdist heist" Oscar, then Takers would take. It is a pit of clichés: the weak link, meddling family members, troubled cops, and a love triangle. Top it all off with a camera as jerky as the San Fran earthquake, and you have one failed caper. Five very dapper gents, with appropriately mixed races, plan a very big heist involving armored cars and underground mechanics. The trouble is, these notoriously meticulous thieves are pressed to pull off the job in five days. Not good for careful planners. Of the things that go wrong, the only one I buy is the late arrival of a target because I've been in Los Angeles traffic, and not even a moving bank could make that congestion go away. Regardless, Detective Jack Welles (Matt Dillon) will sacrifice even his relationship with his daughter to track down these miscreants. Knowing the thespian-challenged Hayden Christensen is a star of Takers, and you dislike nervous MTV camera work, then you have an idea what a crime the film really is. However Dillon is a treat to watch—-he has this world-weary cop down pat. Takers is not Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956), where another five men plot a heist. The only taking here is your ticket money.

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.

You don't go into a movie like this expecting it to be "Apocalypse Now". You walk in expecting to sit back and be entertained. Now I did the latter of the two and honestly I wasn't disappointed, it was far fetched, it had a good amount of dumb action, and mediocre acting. Now this all might sound bad but really it's not I enjoyed this movie for all it's faults. Any description of the plot would be meaningless since it's pretty much given away in the preview, which happens a lot nowadays, but despite the formula plot line there was actually some descent characters to watch and almost care about. I'm really happy I took a chance on this movie, I love great movies and even though this is definitely not one of them it entertained me and for a while I was just enjoying the movie. Which isn't really why we go to the movies anyway?