Review: Takers

Takers may long be remembered for having the most egregiously bad photoshopped poster of all-time. The movie however actually performed well at the box office proving lucrative due to a popular ensemble cast. Unfortunately the final product is not unlike the poster as it feels pieced together clumsily and lacks attention to detail.

Takers finds a group of bank robbers taking on a new plan to rob an armored car when a former member is released from prison who approaches them with the necessary details to pull it off. The cast is all over the place between capable performances such as the one turned in by the reliable Idris Elba countered by some laughably bad ones with T.I. standing out in particular.

The action sequences are poorly choreographed and utilize an absurd number of quick cuts and camera shaking to cover it up and try and increase the tension. A chase sequence reveals that Chris Brown’s character is apparently a master at parkour which came from completely out of left field. Most ridiculous was his literal leap over of a minivan but it continued throughout the entire chase where he pulled off a number of flashy and unexpected moves.

A major shootout near the end of the film was overlaid with melodramatic music which was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was ridiculous in the assumption that the scene was that dramatic for the audience to witness. There was absolutely no emotional attachment to any single character and I couldn’t care less about their fates. That is really where Takers failed the most.

There are also sub-plots following the cop on the case and his partner and Elba’s drug addicted sister which turns out to be a head-scratcher as to why they were even necessary to include. There was no one to root for anywhere in the film, or even necessarily root against, and that makes it difficult to buy into anything happening on-screen.

Takers offers nothing new or unique in the heist genre as it simply pieced together ideas from other films and executed poorly. Even a disappointing movie on the subject matter tends to be entertaining but somehow Takers couldn’t even pull that much off due to the terrible acting, editing, and nonsensical plot developments.

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