Takers

For better or worse, the fact that moviegoers get older only to be followed by a younger generation allows studios to make the same movie over and over again.  But because the audience is new to the movie, it seems just that…new.  My 17-year old cousin thought 2010’s The Town was the greatest movie ever made (I really liked it to be fair), but when I brought up all the movies it borrowed from or paid homage to, she looked at me like I was nuts. The same idea kept running through my head as I watched 2010’s Takers.

Over a two or three month span in spring and summer 2010, a seemingly long list of heist/men on a mission movies hit theaters ranging from really good like The Losers to average but entertaining blockbuster, The A-Team. Takers was the last of the three to hit theaters, and thanks to the saturated market and some poor reviews, it didn’t do well. No secret here, but I’m a sucker for any of these movies. A-N-Y of them. So a hip-hop, more modern take on The Italian Job and every other heist movie ever? Color me intrigued.

After pulling off a successful heist that nets over $2 million dollars, master thief Gordon (Idris Elba) and his team – Jake (Michael Ealy), A.J. (Hayden Christensen), John (Paul Walker), and Jesse (hip-hop artist Chris Brown) – split up the take and prepare to go into hiding as they always do after a job in hopes of letting things cool off. A former associate and member of the crew just paroled after serving a 5-year sentence, Ghost (rapper Tip ‘T.I.’ Harris) approaches the group with an armored vehicle job that could earn them as much as $30 million. Gordon and Co. are suspicious, but the specifics of the plan seem too legit, too good to pass up, and they prepare for a quick turnaround for a second job. But as their plan comes together, two LAPD detectives (Matt Dillon and Jay Hernandez) are closing in on this elusive crew.

This is The Italian Job, Heat, The Town, Le Cercle Rouge, and any number of other heist movies rolled together into one finished product.  That’s not an exaggeration. One scene actually has a character asking “You want to do a real-life Italian Job?” When writing a script/screenplay, I’m guessing it’s that much easier when you don’t actually have to come up with an original idea. Take successful story, add in some semi-new twists, and ta-da! You’ve got every heist movie you’ve ever seen before in a slightly new packaging.

Familiar and/or comfortable is not always a good thing. Director John Luessenhop takes all those elements and never chooses which ones he wants to use and which ones he wants to leave behind. It’s not so much a script with a developing story as a series of clichés and stereotypes. Cop with a checkered past? Yes. Scorned former member of the group? You bet. Girlfriend (a wasted appearance from Zoe Saldana) who moved on to someone else in the group? Present. The acting ranges from quality – Elba, Christensen, Walker and Ealy – to just plain bad – musicians Chris Brown and TI should stick with music. The soundtrack is dull, the editing ultra-fast and ultra-hyper, and the twists of betrayals and double-crosses are easily spotted almost from the start. If you’ve seen any heist movie ever before, you’ll feel like you’ve seen this movie before, and just a head’s up…you have seen this movie.

A saving grace from the hackneyed script that’s pilfered from other similar movies is the cast. The specialists, the thieves, the master crooks, it’s hard to mess that up. Elba is the leader, Walker his tough right hand man who seems to be former military, Christensen and Ealy are the planners, and Brown is Ealy’s younger brother and newest member of the crew. The high points of the movie are Gordon’s crew interacting away from the job, later planning their heists, and figuring out their next move. On their own, none of these are great characters, but together they make the movie that much more enjoyable. The movie and story would have been significantly better overall if more time was spent with the crew, developing these already interesting characters. Brown is the only one who is out of place, and from the director’s chair, Luessenhop seems to know it, limiting his role in terms of actual lines. His Jesse character apparently picks up parkour on a whim in a cool if ridiculous/unnecessary chase scene near the end. Still, the other four are good and make up for Brown’s lack of acting ability.

Having seen this movie in a few other forms, I was rarely bored but knowing where the story is going certainly takes away some of the enjoyment.  Helping save the movie – along with the casting – is the last half hour following the heist.  If heist movies have taught us anything it’s that the heist is the easy part. It’s the fallout afterward where the stuff hits the fan.  SPOILERS STOP READING SPOILERS I was surprised how brutal the fallout is here.  Three of the five are killed, and it’s hinted that a fourth will die after being wounded. Actually, with the exception of one main character, all of the cast gets killed. That’s the new twist here, not because it hasn’t been done before, but because for a tween audience in 2010, it’s hard to imagine these characters being killed off.  More than that, it’s hard to believe a studio approved it. For the guts to go through with it alone, the movie goes up a notch in my book.END OF SPOILERS

An opening heist at a high-tech bank guarded by heavy security shows how skilled this crew is and sets the stage for the rest of the movie. The action is fairly commonplace, and like so many modern action movies, is almost indecipherable because it’s so choppy.  The big heist of the armored vehicle is exactly the same as The Italian Job remake and has hundreds of rounds being fired without anyone actually getting shot. The best segment is when Ghost springs his double-cross, unleashing a rival crew of pissed off Russians on Gordon’s crew. The following shootout at The Roosevelt Hotel is a doozy (in a good way), full of slow motion, shrapnel, gun shots and explosions all over, and cheesy music that still manages to work. That’s Takers. A cheesy rehash of better heist movies that’s still entertaining in a guilty pleasure. Just make sure you stick around through the end.

Takers ß-trailer (2010): ** ½ /****