Takers

Takers is an attempt at a more dynamic, action-packed and less psychological version of Heat. The idea of the key shootout in the hotel is ostensibly stolen from True Romance and, furthermore, is shot and edited in an uninteresting way (unlike the similarly unoriginal, but visually attractive Smokin' Aces). The ending is clichéd and unsatisfactory. Despite all of these flaws, the movie as a whole was sufficiently enjoyable, with a hint of grade-A quality thanks to its cast (who probably expected a slightly better result). Takers is okay as a DVD flick you watch on a weekend evening, but a bad choice for watching at a multiplex. (08/30/2011)

The creators must have thought that throwing a bunch of well-known actors into a completely generic script would somehow make it better. I mean, picture this: there’s a crew that’s been pulling off heists, but now they want out. Then, their old partner gets out of prison and convinces them to do one last big job—bigger than anything they’ve ever pulled off. They hesitate but eventually agree. What follows is a series of prep scenes and then the final heist. The whole film tries to come off as intense with its twists and turns, but honestly, nothing about it is surprising. It’s all stuff we've seen in similar movies before. Sure, it’s nice to see a bunch of familiar faces, and the action isn’t bad, but some of the editing felt like a mess—like I was patching up a wound and hoping for the best. And despite having a solid cast, nobody (except maybe Paul Walker) really brought anything extra to their role. In the end, it’s just a very standard, predictable crime movie. (04/13/2012)

Slick nonsense that fortunately isn’t boring and Idris Elba is the boss. The screenplay is a disintegrating attempt at innovation of the robbery genre, but it fails in all those most important areas. Seeing as it’s just a PG-13, the action is pretty decent, the cars are super and the suits are more stylish than the clowns wearing them. Matt Dillon tries hard, squeezing the maximum from his role, Hayden may have an awful hat here, but he can handle himself in the action (the C4 buying scene), and although Paul Walker doesn’t give us any more than his standard, damn - it’s Paul Walker! A punier buddy of Ben’s The Town. (12/29/2010)

In the context of superficially polished heist styles, it's actually the absolute peak, and you can't ask for more. Sure, you may want a plot that doesn't borrow from everywhere and characters who are more than just uncompromising muscle heads, but every once in a while, it is possible to survive one of these. This is especially true if you assemble a high-quality group of proper actors off the bench. [PS: If the quality of the director's films maintains a continuous rise over the same time span, we can look forward to a top-five hit in 2020. :-)] (01/14/2011)

A very stylish, polished, and very wannabe cool spectacle. But Robert De Niro in Heat, didn't really care whether he would wear an Armani or Hugo Boss suit for the bank heist (thank God). Idris Elba is excellent. I don't understand PG-13 rating, it completely killed the film. (01/14/2011)