Review of Takers (2010) by Maksim B — 18 Mar 2011

Takers is an ambitious mash-up of several classics, which delivers a solid portion of mainstream pop-culture entertainment, but remains a mediocre cinematographic achievement.

In a genre, where escaping cliches is almost impossible Takers is an attempt to be a sort of "pop-culture-fashion" version of the classic cop versus robbers formula. Instead of focusing purely on the main plot and building up the tension, the movie loses its grip on the audience with two absolutely useless and awfully weakly presented two subplots. The story of the corrupted cop and the drug-addicted mother slows down the overall action without delivering any emotional or other value to the movie. It does have potent last 15 minutes, but this could not bring overall satisfaction from the final result.

The cast, full of pop-culture and R n B stars attracts mainly with flashy cars, luxurious lifestyle rather than to deliver convincing performances. In addition to this director John Luessenhop fails to focus the story on anyone of the takers in particular, which results in the absolute lack of emotional connection between the cast and the audience. Matt Dillon, however, differs from the mediocrity and shows his usual solid performance of a stubborn cop, troubled by different family and colleague-related dramas.

Takers finishes in a perfectly forgettable way and does nothing to bring up anything memorable.