Release Date:August 27th, 2010
Starring: * Zoe Saldana Zoe Saldana * Hayden Christensen Hayden Christensen * Paul Walker Paul Walker * Matt Dillon Matt Dillon* Idris Elba Idris Elba
Director:John Luessenhop
Writer:Peter Allen, Gabriel Casseus, John Luessenhop, Avery Duff
Studio:Screen Gems (Sony)
Genre:Crime, Thriller
Takers takes you into the world of a notorious group of criminals (Idris Elba, Paul Walker, T.I., Chris Brown, Hayden Christensen and Michael Ealy) who continue to baffle police by pulling off perfectly executed bank robberies. They are in and out like clockwork, leaving no evidence behind and laying low between heists. But when they attempt to pull off one last job with more money at stake than ever before, the crew may find their plans interrupted by a hardened detective (Matt Dillon) who is hell-bent on solving the case.
Aside from Jean-Baptiste, there are virtually no women in this caper. It's strictly a testosterone-drenched adventure, which would be fine if the director didn't suffer from the latest affliction in action movies, a form of cinematic ADD. Luessenhop's camera is never at rest, and his frenetic editing style often detracts from the tension.
There's a foot chase through downtown Los Angeles that might have been a classic sequence except that it's been chopped up ferociously, as if it had been spliced by a Benihana chef gone berserk.
In a movie like "The French Connection," the chase sequences had visual clarity as well as nail-biting suspense. In "Takers," the director never firmly establishes the locations, and the herky-jerky editing further muddies the action.
Nevertheless, the stunt work is amazing, and the pace is breathless enough to keep one watching right up to the somewhat ambiguous conclusion. Michael Barrett's cinematography is suitably slick, and Paul Haslinger's music gets a tad pretentious. Luckily, the actors always help to humanize the mayhem.
