With a ‘take’ higher than its budget in its first week of release, the John Luessenhop film Takers pulled in more than $20M over the weekend.
The crime action film stars Paul Walker, Idris Elba (who uses his native English accent), Hayden Christensen, Michael Ealy, T.I., and Chris Brown as a team of high end bank robbers pulled into one last big job. Standing in their way are Matt Dillon and Jay Hernandez, who play detectives set on ending the thieves fun.
Christensen enjoyed playing his role in the film, saying, “This was an opportunity for me to act like a kid and, you know, play cops and robbers and run around shooting a gun. It’s what you dream about growing up.”
Check out the MakingOf Takers featurette below.
Takers is almost unwatchable. The frantic uber-hand-held twitchy shooting style is more like a six-year on a sugar high than someone who is actually paid to hold a camera. Heist films are notoriously predictable and derivative of each other, but Takers actually mentions their new caper as “The Italian Job.”
So what makes it “almost” watchable? The scenery. The apartments the thieves live in, the cars they drive and the clothes they wear are beautiful. You see Paul Walker driving a silver Porsche 356A Speedster and you want to be him…until he opens his mouth. There is also some unintentional laughs during a chase scene where Chris Brown is shoving people aside to get away. Several of those shoved are female and throughout the theater the quips about Brown’s incident with former girlfriend Rihanna sounded from the darkness.
See Takers if someone is willing to pay for your ticket AND popcorn. Make sure you also do one of two things: either sit in the row farthest away from the screen or take Dramamine for the motion sickness that the spastic camera moves will cause. If you’re prone to seizures, do not see this film.
You can read my complete review (and others) at my website.