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"Takers" lives up to its name.
It lifts a little from this heist flick, that cop movie, a Rat Pack caper, a gangster thriller, plus "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and then allows rapper Tip "T.I." Harris to steal the whole thing. You feel as if you've seen it all before although not with these faces, a motley crew that probably would exist only in the movies.
Even then, it's hard to believe that characters played by Idris Elba, Paul Walker, Michael Ealy, Chris Brown and Hayden Christensen would ever become a gang of five, with T.I. as the sixth member who was temporarily sidelined by prison. They're a sharp-dressing crew assembled by a casting director, not a criminal mastermind.
- Starring: Idris Elba, Chris Brown, Matt Dillon, Tip "T.I." Harris.
- Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, a sexual situation, partial nudity and some language.
"Takers" doesn't show them coming together or even talking about how they joined forces (although Mr. Ealy and Mr. Brown play brothers), it hits the ground running and robbing.
Set in Los Angeles, the drama opens with a bank job that nets the robbers more than $2 million. The getaway is inspired, and even the two detectives (Matt Dillon, Jay Hernandez) investigating the crime agree the degree of difficulty of the robbery was "off the charts."
Although known for meticulous preparation, the robbers entertain a plan proposed by Ghost (T.I.), freshly sprung from the joint, to go after an armored car. The catch is they have to plan and execute the elaborate crime in just five days.
"Takers" follows the crooks and the cops, particularly Mr. Dillon's character, who has all the usual cliches of failed marriage, daughter who plays second fiddle to police work, trouble with Internal Affairs and a partner who seems to be everything he's not.
Directed by John Luessenhop and credited to four writers, "Takers" features a beautifully breathless chase scene involving Mr. Brown that takes him down L.A. streets, over ledges and onto cars below (as if they were trampolines) to the pavement and inside offices and a kitchen.
It's all very overheated with an operatic shootout in a Hollywood landmark and handheld camera work that takes you almost too close to the dizzying action. If the theater had not been packed I would have moved to a seat in a back row.
Although it expends lots and lots of ammo, some deaths are staged like fashion shoots -- a body on an illuminated bar, another on the floor face up. The dialogue is uninspired, with lines such as "Bet big, win big, that's the only way to play."
If the screenplay is its weakness, its strength is its cast, even if it presents Ivy Leaguers or jazz club owners who are explosives experts. In addition to the core crew, "Takers" features Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Mr. Elba's older sister who is in rehab and Zoe Saldana as eye candy-girlfriend.
Ghost is the wild card, and even his criminal compatriots don't know whether they can trust him. T.I., here making only his third movie, plays it cool, like a shark silently circling in a tank.
Whether, when, who or how he might strike proves he's the real Taker here.
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