TAKERS is a repackaging of HEAT for the young, urban, male crowd. This film tries so hard to be hip that it hurts - it's obviously targeted at a black demographic with its casting of various uninteresting rappers-turned-actors and the like - and yet it plays out a tired old story which has been told time and time again. It's hard to know what's more disappointing here, the clichéd story or the entirely unremarkable direction.
The story features a couple of weary cops (a tired-looking Matt Dillon and a 'remember him?' Jay Hernandez from HOSTEL) as they track down a large gang of robbers planning to carry out their latest audacious heist. All of the crime and heist clichés are present and correct here, but the characters aren't; the team of scriptwriters fail to make anybody in the least bit likable, so you just can't muster up the enthusiasm to care about what happens.
Paul Walker's here in a minor bit of tokenism to draw in FAST AND FURIOUS viewers. Hayden Christensen (STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH) shows up, but has such a lack of presence that I didn't realise it was him until late on in the proceedings. The best performance goes to Idris Elba as one of the gang members, but he's given so little to work with that you wonder why he showed up. TAKERS is an example of Hollywood cookie-cutter movie-making at its worst.
The story features a couple of weary cops (a tired-looking Matt Dillon and a 'remember him?' Jay Hernandez from HOSTEL) as they track down a large gang of robbers planning to carry out their latest audacious heist. All of the crime and heist clichés are present and correct here, but the characters aren't; the team of scriptwriters fail to make anybody in the least bit likable, so you just can't muster up the enthusiasm to care about what happens.
Paul Walker's here in a minor bit of tokenism to draw in FAST AND FURIOUS viewers. Hayden Christensen (STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH) shows up, but has such a lack of presence that I didn't realise it was him until late on in the proceedings. The best performance goes to Idris Elba as one of the gang members, but he's given so little to work with that you wonder why he showed up. TAKERS is an example of Hollywood cookie-cutter movie-making at its worst.