Tim Grierson (23 May 2012)

Leaning very heavily on style and attitude, the film won't win a single point for originality, but director John Luessenhop keeps the action rolling along at a steady clip.

(22 May 2012)

Flashy appearance + Some good shooting scenes = 3 stars.

- The bad guys in this movie look flashy with their expensive suites. They look more like successfully businessmen. - There are a couple of exciting shooting scenes. - The acting looks pretentious to me.- There's nothing new about the plot.In short, it's worth watching once.

Tim Robey (21 May 2012)

The director of Takers, a try-hard heist movie of clomping unoriginality and self-regard, is labouring under the embarrassing delusion that he's Michael Mann.

Robin Clifford (20 May 2012)

Solid direction, an almost-terrific story, good ensemble acting and fine behind the camera work make the trip to the air conditioned theater on these dog days of summer worthwhile.

Rebecca Murray (20 May 2012)

Takers is in the running for the most unintentionally funny film of 2010.

palu66 (19 May 2012)

Not as good as Italian job, but...

Well , I just finished watching this.Not as bad as expected.On firstlook the plot looked very similar to the title I mentioned before.Butafter the first few minutes it went by a different direction. I thinkthey put more action in , but the ideas and the tricks of the robberieswere all seen before. I didn't expect much from Paul Walker or HaydenChristensen , however Matt Dillon did a great job playing the cop wholives for his job.Zoe Saldana played the eye candy. It was pretty muchpredictable , and the shooting scenes at the end were quite unrealistic, but on the other hand it was fast-paced with intense action .Theending was a little surprising , it left me with the feeling ofimperfection. Bottom line, if you looking for some Saturday night moviewith your friends or girlfriend , go for it it won't disappoint as aquick action treat.

Robert W. Butler (19 May 2012)

A slickly efficient cops-and-robbers yarn, largely uncomplicated yet offering a few moments of insight and dramatic weight.

(18 May 2012)

Really Good Caper Movie, Lots of Action

I thought this was a really good caper/heist movie. It started out kind of like The Italian Job but got and ended more serious. There was lots of action and no boring parts. I don't know why the critics did not like it when there are so many bad movies out there.

(18 May 2012)

great action film

I thought this was a good movie. The chase scene with Chris Brown was exciting - it reminded me of the pulse-pounding chase scenes in "24". Good cast and a great action movie for any collection. I can't wait until the dvd comes out!

TxMike (18 May 2012)

Another bank robbery movie with nothing new to add.

Over the years I have become a fan of Matt Dillon, his acting style andthe characters he creates. For me, he was the only really good thingabout this movie. On DVD, from my public library.As the movie ("Takers", as in taking what belongs to others) begins wesee a small gang pulling off a bank robbery, wearing black knit masksand carrying powerful weapons, they storm into the banks, shoot up thesurroundings, and begin to take the cash. One of them sees a womanpushing a panic button, so he tells, make this call, tell them a bankrobbery in in progress.The call was made to a TV news station and, as the helicopter comesclose a fake cop waves them in to land on the building, so that therobbers could use it as their getaway. Good, inventive premise.But for me that was the only really good part of the movie. Dillon asdetective Jack Welles is intent on solving this crime and putting thegang behind bars. He looks at endless video surveillance of thebuilding and elevators where the robbery was staged, and then otherevidence, and starts to put together clues that might lead him to thecrooks.In the meantime the crooks get reunited with "Ghost", one of their ownwho just got out of prison, serving several years after being caughtduring one job. While he appeared pleasant with the others, evencongratulating the guy who now has his old girl, when it was all donehis motto might well have been, "Don't get mad, get even." He sets themup with a job, like an "Italian Job", but his real intent is a doublecross.The story doesn't end well for anyone. Most of them get killed, someget away. But for me the movie was about foot chases, car chases, andgun fights. All that substituting for a really good story.Overall a disappointment for me.

lovecoredesigns (14 May 2012)

Great acting and good action.

Although the film has many similarities as the film "Armoured", whoMatt Dillon also starred in, this film was much better. The film"Takers" has more of a plot than just simply trying to do a robbery ofarmoured vehicles, which "Armoured" was all about.This film has much more going for it, more action and simply one with abetter story. I wasn't too keen on a couple of the black guys who weretrying to act "all big" and hard, it didn't fool me at all and thoughttheir characters were rather annoying to watch, but other than that thefilm was great. The ending however was pretty bad. I expected a littlemore.

Susan Granger (14 May 2012)

Jimmy Buffett wrote a song called "Overkill" and that's the word which best describes this high-powered yet formulaic heist caper.

razorcutgarlic (11 May 2012)

A hodge podge of other great heist films

After reading some of the positive reviews of this movie, I must put mytwo cents in. This film is absolute crap, and if you are one of the fewpeople who like it, you must not have seen many heist movies in yourlife.Spoiler warning for something that happens at the beginning of thefilm. The film opens with a bank heist that desperately wants to belike the bank heist in Michael Mann's Heat, except that instead of ahard-ass bastards like DeNiro, Val Kilmer, and Tom Sizemore, we have abunch of soft-ass pop singers and pretty boys like Paul Walker andHayden Christensen.You're supposed to believe that these guys are highly disciplined andbad-ass outlaws?! Gimme a break! After they grab the cash, they escapeby running to the roof of the building, and tricking a news chopperinto landing so that they can use it to escape! Right there I was like,what if the news chopper decided not to be stupid? Now you're stuck ontop of a damn skyscraper with nowhere to run! Can you imagine ifDeNiro's crew in Heat decided that their only escape plan was tochopper jack an escape vehicle?! It's beyond stupid, and utterlyludicrous! The filmmakers rip off a plethora of classic andnot-so-classic heist films including Heat, the Italian Job, and TrueRomance. If you have never seen any of these movies, you may find thissomewhat entertaining.

lekgolah (11 May 2012)

Terrible. Combine Heat, Fast & Furious and a bit of Point Break then mess it up = Takers

Everything about this film is terrible. It is a waste of time and is anexample of what happens when you combine poor directing with an equallypoor script. It is one of those films that once it has ended, you willsoon realise what a waste of time it is. One important feature to include with a film about robbers is themotive. Without why should they be putting themselves through such arisk. T.I enters the scene with a proposal to his former bank robberfriends having been released from prison. Everyone in the team iswealthy and has no need for risking arrest. This makes no sense! Theplan itself is ridiculous yet it appears the police can never land abullet on one of them. The characters themselves are flat and lifeless. The lack of a motivedoesn't help matters. Idris Elba's character has a troubled sister andMatt Dillon and his partner also have troubles but they lack anyinterest and serve only as a way to draw out the running-time. Whateverhappens to them by the end, you will not care.Regardless of the story or characters, the action is where the filmshould entertain the audience but it fails poorly. One decentfoot-chase through an office can't redeem an ambush scene resulting ina shootout. The audio is reduced while music plays in the foregroundtaking any excitement away. The films almost non-existent ending willalso annoy viewers, making this something that should be missed withouthesitation.

Thawk567 (10 May 2012)

Takers, not the best robbery movie, but entertaining.

I knew from the first I heard about this film I was going to likebecause it is my type of film. I also like the cast including certainactors like Idris Elba, Hayden Christensen and Paul Walker. I also didnot expect T.I. to be a great actor. I only think he was good becausethe movie is based on crime, I don't think he will be an Oscar winner.The one person I was really upset to see in this film was Chris Brown,he was terrible in the film and terrible in real life. I tell youthough this movie suits him because of his past with Rhianna, trust mewhen I say Chris Brown is a coward-less ass.Besides the cast the movie was good, not great, not OK, just good. Inoticed at least a handful of mistakes in the film. Some things were norealistic, now I know what your thinking "but it's a movie it is allfiction." That may be true but this film is based on stuff that couldhappen so it is a film that should feel realistic. I'm going to spoilone thing about the film, but it is nothing big. When Zoe Salandana'scharacter dies I thought it was a little to graphic even for a filmlike this.I thought that the way the film was shot and the locations in whichthey were shot were excellent. Another things I like was that theydidn't abuse special effects and kept it simple. I think I enjoyed thefilm even more because of the crowd tonight. The crowd made hilariouspuns when certain things happened through out the film. In all honestlythe film missed some opportunities and made mistakes. I expected allotmore from the film due to the cast, story, and topic of discussion. Itell you the movie reminded me allot of Grand Theft Auto 4 which wasone of my favorite games, but it still wasn't enough for me. I givethis a 5 out of 10 stars.

Jeffrey M. Anderson (09 May 2012)

The movie falls to pieces in the midst of well-staged but poorly-shot (and ultimately ridiculous) action sequences.

(08 May 2012)

Takers is an Action Packed Hit You'll Watch Again and Again

This review is from: Takers (DVD) This is a movie I watched because there was nothing else on, and now I consider it one of my favorite crime/action movies. It is one of those movies where you may not recognize the names of the actors, but you will recognize all of their faces, and you will never forget them after you see this movie.

fullautofury (08 May 2012)

Highly flawed, but ultimately successful

The plot for this film does not need to be explained. It's basically apastiche of The Italian Job, True Romance and melodramatic clichés. The third element in the blender, mentioned above, along with a scriptshort on genuine character development (You'll sometimes forget thatHayden Christensen and Zoe Saldana are in it) are distracting for afilm which develops a serious tone, but there are positives, dependingon your genre preferences. The film moves along briskly, even as we deal with a cringe-worthyfirst half, and when the actual robbery gets going, the fun starts.Though the cinematography is modeled too much off of the Bourne-styleshaky cam, the set pieces are still very well pulled off. The extended car chases and shootouts contain a level of energy andsuspense that really makes them standout, comparable to similar scenesin the above mentioned films, along with an on-foot chase clearlymodeling itself off of the Madagascar chase in Casino Royale. Every carwhizzing by, bone crunch or gunshot affects the audience due to mostly-proper use of slow motion, and great editing, both sound and film wise.The melodrama may make some engaged viewers start laughing due to howit's put on screen, but as the stakes get higher, gels with thestoryline. The main cast, considering the material they are given, do the bestthey can, and their charisma is enough for us to care about them whenthe stakes get REALLY high, particularly in the case of Matt Dillon andIdris Elba.It's highly unoriginal and contains several other elements worthy ofnitpicking, but after evaluating how I had spent the past 107 minutesof my life, I think it got the job done.B-

shiloo (05 May 2012)

good soundtrack'awful movie

Surely one of the worst action flicks I have ever seen. Even "Rambo IV"had a better story and more character than this huge waste of time. Iwonder how any Studio would release a movie so bad and waste 20millions on a simply trashy production.I wonder why quite a few decent actors would sign up for this project.Didn't they get to read a screenplay before signing a contract?There was no character introduction, no explanation on why they had todistrust ghost so much, yet at the same time immediately sign off onthis obviously rushed heist. They just finished a calmly, well executedrobbery, seemingly with a lot of cash involved. Why then follow someonethey quite obviously distrust? And who are these guys? I don't know them, and I never got to showthem. Obviously the screenwriter and the director wanted me to feelsorry for them since they all got to die in slow motion underlined withdramatic music?And these Russians we heard of them once, but then they suddenly appearand kill off the main characters. And how did the cops find out aboutthe two black guys and their whereabouts? And why did they have to diein a shoot out?I liked the soundtrack of the movie, and I liked the stylish clothingof the main cast, so 2 points seem fair to me. But honestly, don'twaste your life watching it. Don't think that just because yourecognize a couple names of the main cast that it can't be that bad.Yes it is, sadly. One of the worst screenplays ever realized in amovie.

Henry Fitzherbert (05 May 2012)

An empty-headed heist movie which makes no effort to endear us to the slick gangsters or the police pursuing them.