Takers (2010) * *

 

Directed by:  John Luessenhop

Starring: Idris Elba, Matt Dillon, Paul Walker, Hayden Christensen, Chris Brown, Michael Ealy, T.I., Jay Hernandez

Takers opens with a bank robbery operated with pinpoint precision led by Gordon Cozier (Elba) and his longtime team.   They score more than two million dollars and even manipulate a way to steal a helicopter to escape.   The movie has the feel of Heat (1995) up to that point, but about forty minutes in begins unraveling.   Gordon and his group: Right-hand man John (Walker), brother Jake (Ealy) and Jesse (Brown), and A.J. (Christensen) party on the town like no one's business when they are approached by a recently-paroled associate named Ghost (T.I.) to run a far more lucrative score.   Ghost proposes knocking over two armored cars and netting a score of over thirty million dollars.   

Not bad for a few days work, but trusting Ghost is a dangerous proposition.   He was captured during a heist some years back and has a chip on his shoulder about that plus he's eager to have his share of the take which Gordon has been holding in safe keeping.   Most of the group doesn't trust Ghost, but they like the idea of the money.   "We're takers, that's what we do," says Gordon, and the group plots how to maneuver the two armored trucks into their possession.  

Ghost says "we're going to Italian Job" the trucks and wouldn't you know it, the group places C4 under a Los Angeles street in the middle of rush hour which will blow a hole in the pavement so the trucks can fall into it.   The thieves will be waiting to rip off the cash and skedaddle.  This was done with much more subtlety in The Italian Job.   I remember loving the sequence when it was masterfully pulled off.  This may be the first caper movie I've seen in which the thieves use another caper movie as their inspiration for pulling off a robbery.   Or maybe this is just lazy writing.   

Takers begins with a distinct energy which draws you in, but then turns generic and forgettable as it devolves into chases, gunfire, and fights with detective Jack Welles (Dillon) on the group's tail.  Jack has Problems Of His Own, including a recent divorce and a pending lawsuit against him for excessive force.  Takers starts to feel more like a knockoff of better noir caper movies like Heat and The Italian Job.   A climactic gunfight involving Gordon's crew and the Russian mob is scored similarly to The Insider, which makes sense considering Michael Mann directed both Heat and The Insider, but this only serves as an echo of much better films you should be watching instead of this one.