This big, dumb and mostly fun heist flick begins with a chase through LA and rarely lets up. Throughout, director John Luessenhop, a Sundance graduate, maintains sleek John Woo-inspired visuals and a blistering pace. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, though nobody could accuse Takers of subtlety.
The characters, such as they are, invariably exist in two or less dimensions. Hayden Christensen is the soulful, tattooed piano player who, in the wake of his crew’s latest Big Score, is heard to insist on a 10 percent cut for “the usual charities”. Paul Walker is his flash colleague, an unrepentant thief with an eye for shiny cars and jacuzzis full of hot girl-on-girl action. The Wire’s Idris Elba is the brains of the outfit, an all-round good guy who hopes to retire to the Caribbean with his addict sister. Brothers Jake (Michael Ealy) and Jesse (Chris Brown) Attica round off the gang; their catchphrase is: “I ain’t going back to juve. Not now, not ever.”
Together, they’re a mean bank-robbing machine or, to use the words of Matt Dillon, playing the obsessed cop on their tail, “a shit hot crew”. Trouble arrives in the form of Ghost (T.I.), a former cohort with plans to hit a security truck. Is he on the level? Or is he setting everybody up?
There are too many amazing coincidences for Takers to sit comfortably alongside the superior and similarly themed The Town, but the fight scenes and shoot-outs are first rate and the cast sure are a likeable bunch. Indeed, we’re particularly happy to report that Mr. Christensen is blossoming into quite a fine actor. Time to retire those Mannequin Skywalker jokes.