TAKERS 
Starring:
Matt Dillion, Hayden Christensen, Chris Brown, Michael Ealy, Idris Elba, Jay Hernandez, Paul Walker, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Tip ‘T.I.’ Harris and Zoe Saldana
Director:
John Luessenhop
Running Time:
107 mins
Out to buy on Blu-Ray/DVD 07/02/11
"We're takers, gents. That's what we do for a living. We take."
After successfully robbing a bank in Los Angeles, Gordon Jennings (Elba) and his crew plan to sit back and live the high life on their $2 million dollar horde. When former member Ghost (Harris) is released from prison after taking the fall for them in 2004, he brings them a job and could be too good to turn down. An armoured car transporting $20 million is ripe for the taking but can Gordon trust Ghost’s intel and can they put the plan in place within five days?
The gentleman thief has been the hero of many a movie but can a whole group of bank robbers do enough to make you care if they get caught or not?
The movies have always been a place where a thief can be a hero. From Danny Ocean to Thomas Crown, the professional thief stealing from someone who deserves to be taken down a peg or two has been a plot device that driven many a film. The Clooney/Soderburgh ‘Ocean’ movies made the taking of money from a rich man very cool, with the elaborately planned heist twisting and turning the audience as they hope that the thieves do not get caught. John Luessenhop’s ‘Takers’ however introduces a collection of professional thieves that you really hope get caught because they are not really the hero types.
The Crew in this case is not filled with loveable, cheeky characters whom you want to take on ‘The Man’ and steal their money but seasoned criminals who are in it for the money and nothing else. This is were the film falls down because they are in essence law breakers who can turn on each other at the drop of the hat. While the characters are set up as a brotherhood of professional robbers, you do not believe that the connection between them is for anything else but the money and the lifestyle that comes from their ill-gotten gains. When a former member who has just come out of prison offers them the chance to take a $20 million armoured car heist, it is the draw of the money, stealing from an insured bank and not the complexity of the job that makes them want to take it. Greed may have been good in the 80s but stealing to have the lifestyle that the majority can only dream about will not gain an audience in the current financial climate.
The cast however deserve a lot better. Leading the crew is British actor Idris Elba as Gordon Cozier and with his best friend John Rahway, played by Paul Walker the pair have brought together a team that can take on any job. Brothers Jesse and Jack Attica, played by Chris Brown and Michael Ealy, and the always-dreadful Hayden Christensen does not improve his acting prowess as A.J. Rapper turned actor T.I. should have stuck to his music instead of trying to breath life into the former crewmember Ghost. Matt Dillion and Jay Hernandez are the two police officers Jack Welles and Eddie Hatcher who are investigating the spate of robberies committed by the crew. Zoe Saldana and Marianne Jean-Baptiste are wasted and completely underused and just used as plot filler.
‘Takers’ is a missed opportunity. The decent cast and a few good set action sequences are let down by a plot and a group of characters that you really don’t care about. The gentleman thief should be the ones who you want to get away with the crime but by the end of this very average heist story, you will not care who has got away.
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