Horror movie fans are used to thinking, “Don’t go upstairs,” when the dumb blond runs into the dark and creepy house while being chased by the axe murderer, then are not surprised when she suffers a bloody and gory death. Audiences of the movie Takers will similarly think “Don’t trust the guy who has every reason in the world to hate you when he tells you that he has an awesome heist for you and your friends to pull off and it just so happens that the Russian mob is involved.” Then the audience won’t be surprised when the antics begin.
Takers follows a gang of thieves who specialize in daring robberies where millions of dollars are at stake so they can live their self-indulgent wealthy lifestyles in LA, most of which apparently consists of hanging out at their private bar and posing like their at a GQ photo shoot. An old buddy of theirs who was shot in a botched heist they pulled years ago gets out of jail and purposes the most daring of daring jobs: robbing an armored car. The entire gang immediately say “Gawsh, I’m glad you have no hard feelings about losing years of your life in prison and losing your incredibly hot girlfriend to someone else in the gang, let’s go against our whole plan of playing it safe and spacing our thefts years apart and rush this one for old times’ sake.”
Opposing them is a buddy cop team that tries really hard at doing the “good cop/bad cop” routine in their personal lives as much as possible. One’s shining happy family all but wear tee shirts that say, “Daddy will tragically die”. The other has no problem beating a purp to within an inch of his life or take his own daughter on a surveillance mission against people who have been videotaped to have no problem using large guns on people.
The camera shots in Takers is a cross between NCIS and the Borne series, with strange points of view and shaky camera angles during action scenes like its being filmed on someone’s iPhone. One of the more intense examples is an on foot chase scene between one of the gang members and the buddy cops. The thief jumps over cars, through windows, and up staircases like he’s part frog. Luckily for the cops he leaves a wake of annoyed, confused and scared people behind him so the cops have little trouble keeping up. At least that’s what it looked like. All the blurry shots and fast cuts make parts of the scene confusing and jumbled, and knowing exactly what’s going on is anyone’s guess. On the plus side it gave the audience a lot of pretty colors to look at.
Takers definitely had its moments, like watching a thief drive an armored van Grand Theft Auto style at armed guards. Running commentary in his ear from his fellow thief via earpiece gives the scene both a humorous and exciting feel.
Takers isn’t the summer’s worst movie, but it’s by no means the best. It’s good to kill an hour when what you wanted to see was sold out, or to hide out in after you just knocked over a bank, but overall it’s not becoming a classic anytime soon.
