DVD Takers
Run time: 107 min
Rating: 6.2
Genres: Action | Crime | Thriller
Director: John Luessenhop
Writers: Peter Allen, Gabriel Casseus
Stars: Chris Brown, Hayden Christensen, Matt Dillon
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Storyline A seasoned team of bank robbers, including Gordon Jennings (Idris Elba), John Rahway (Paul Walker), A.J. (Hayden Christensen), and brothers Jake (Michael Ealy) and Jesse (Chris Brown) Attica successfully complete their latest heist and lead a life of luxury while planning their next job. When Ghost (Tip T.I. Harris), a former member of their team, is released from prison he convinces the group to strike an armored car carrying $20 million. As the “takers” carefully plot their strategy and draw nearer to exacting the grand heist, a reckless police officer (Matt Dillon) inches closer to apprehending the criminals. Written by The Massie Twins |
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Plot Keywords: bank, heist, armored car, planning, detective | |
Details: Country: USA Release Date: 1 October 2010 (UK) |
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Box Office Budget: $20,000,000 (estimated) Opening Weekend: £208,390 (UK) (1 October 2010) Gross: $57,744,720 (USA) (12 November 2010) |
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4 comments
After reading the reviews posted here, I had little hope of seeing a good movie, although the fact that the movie was playing at a "budget" theater was incentive enough for me to see it. I'm glad I went. Over the last couple of years, I've found that reviews on movies have become extremely undependable. It seems as though a lot of folks, who fancy themselves as reliable movie critics, have become quite snobbish in their reviews. It's so easy to be critical. Some critics like to feel that they are a step above the rest of us, and therefore more likely to understand how the movie should have been written, versus the flawed production that was actually released upon the public. I'd have missed many a good movie had I listened to the "professionals". This is an entertaining movie. It's not "The Godfather" or "Shawshank Redemption", but it's a good old fashioned action movie that keeps your attention. Get some popcorn and soda, sit back, and enjoy the show.
The plot for this film does not need to be explained. It's basically a pastiche of The Italian Job, True Romance and melodramatic clichés.
The third element in the blender, mentioned above, along with a script short on genuine character development (You'll sometimes forget that Hayden Christensen and Zoe Saldana are in it) are distracting for a film which develops a serious tone, but there are positives, depending on your genre preferences.
The film moves along briskly, even as we deal with a cringe-worthy first half, and when the actual robbery gets going, the fun starts. Though the cinematography is modeled too much off of the Bourne-style shaky cam, the set pieces are still very well pulled off.
The extended car chases and shootouts contain a level of energy and suspense that really makes them standout, comparable to similar scenes in the above mentioned films, along with an on-foot chase clearly modeling itself off of the Madagascar chase in Casino Royale. Every car whizzing by, bone crunch or gunshot affects the audience due to mostly- proper use of slow motion, and great editing, both sound and film wise.
The melodrama may make some engaged viewers start laughing due to how it's put on screen, but as the stakes get higher, gels with the storyline.
The main cast, considering the material they are given, do the best they can, and their charisma is enough for us to care about them when the stakes get REALLY high, particularly in the case of Matt Dillon and Idris Elba.
It's highly unoriginal and contains several other elements worthy of nitpicking, but after evaluating how I had spent the past 107 minutes of my life, I think it got the job done.
B-
You don't go into a movie like this expecting it to be "Apocalypse Now". You walk in expecting to sit back and be entertained. Now I did the latter of the two and honestly I wasn't disappointed, it was far fetched, it had a good amount of dumb action, and mediocre acting. Now this all might sound bad but really it's not I enjoyed this movie for all it's faults.
Any description of the plot would be meaningless since it's pretty much given away in the preview, which happens a lot nowadays, but despite the formula plot line there was actually some descent characters to watch and almost care about.
I'm really happy I took a chance on this movie, I love great movies and even though this is definitely not one of them it entertained me and for a while I was just enjoying the movie. Which isn't really why we go to the movies anyway?
This movie is fast-paced and the cinematography (specifically the shaky camera thing) is clever and interesting when it's not irritating. Also, there is some eye candy for the ladies and some of the cast is full of interesting and appealing characters, some who actually do decent acting jobs ("some" is the operative word.) Those are the good points.
Now the other side. I like T.I. as a rapper and even thought he did an okay acting job in ATL a few years ago, but his acting here was just downright criminal. There was one scene in which he dominated the dialog that I actually said out loud, "his acting is so bad, it's offensive." You're actually offended that that is being pushed off as something you should buy as a viewer. You're wondering how no one in the director's booth was offended by it. In fairness, the fast action of the bulk of the movie shields the poor acting a bit, so the blow is blunted a bit. But between his poor acting and Chris Brown's sometimey acting, it was just a lot being asked of the viewer. Speaking of characters, the lack of character development is also a low point of the film. I agree with another commenter that you're asked to feel something for a character who dies, but you feel nothing because you really haven't been given anything to know or care about. And finally as others have stated, the plot is clichéd to the point that you're wondering if it's supposed to be a satire of some sort. But no, no satire. They're seriously trying to wrap Heat and Set it Off and Dead Presidents up in a big bow and pass it off as a new present. Just not a good thing to do.
I rate it a 5 on a 10-point scale because while it's not a great movie, it does hold your attention and as bad as some parts are, it's not the worst movie I've ever seen. So I say giving it about half credit is pretty accurate. In that vain, I won't say you should pay to see this or you shouldn't pay to see it. I say do the 50/50 thing–flip a coin. Either way, the earth won't shatter. This movie is just not that significant either way. It will probably be forgotten pretty soon.