Takers Review

Rating: 2.5/10

Let me put to rest the fears that I didn't like this movie because I'm more of a rocker guy, and I would've liked it more if it had Bruce Springsteen or something. I like hip-hop. Classic hip hop. Lil Wayne, Drake, T-Pain, that kinda stuff doesn't do it for me. And to be honest, rappers are better actors than rockers. I mean, Mos Def and Common are awesome, and we can't forget Queen Latifah and Eminem and even Tupac.

As for rockers and pop stars, it's pretty much the opposite. Does anyone remember Madonna's acting career? Or Sting? Even Neil Diamond made a crappy movie. Anyway, on to Takers.

The Takers are a group of 5 badass bank robbers who get the money, the wine, and you bet they get the women. Matt Dillon is a "hard-boiled" detective who wants to catch them. In the middle of all this is Ghost, a recently released from jail, former Taker, who threatens to not only make the Takers a ton of money, but get them all killed because he's crazy. Sounds like the premise of a good action movie if you ask me.

Too bad that the whole thing is so obnoxiously average. How's the acting? Idris Elba is good, T.I. is over the top, Matt Dillon does his best Christian Bale impression, and of course, Paul Walker and Hayden Christensen show about 3-4 emotions apiece. There's no character development and it doesn't make much sense at times, but it's not as bad as Salt or even Tokyo Drift.

The script is cliched and you can tell what's going to happen to each character as soon as they walk in the room. The whole thing is shot like a cheesy music video, and while some of the action is ok, most of it is so shaky cam that you can't really tell what's happening.

Overall, Takers is a prime example of something that's so OK that you can't hate it. It's not good, not at all, but it's not bad either. What it ends up being is a cheesy action-drama that any director could have made in about 10 minutes with the same kind of script and characters. That may be fine for some people, it isn't for me, and I ended up being bored.