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Recent releases:
- That They May Face the Rising Sun
- Jericho Ridge
- Civil War
- Mothers' Instinct
- Sweet East, The
- Ghost Busters: Frozen Empire
- Immaculate
- Roaring Twenties, The (reissue)
- Soul
- Dune: part two
- American Star
- Dune: Part 1 (reissue)
- Jerry & Marge Go Large
- Argylle
- Forever Young
- Jackdaw
- All of Us Strangers
- Holdovers, The
- Mean Girls
- Poor Things
Takers
Stars: Matt Dillon, Idris Elba, Jay Hernandez, Hayden Christensen, Paul Walker, Chris Brown, Michael Ealy, Tip 'T.I.' Harris, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Zoe Saldaña, Johnathon Schaech, Zulay Henao, Steve Harris, Glynn Turman, Nicholas Turturro, Gideon Emery
Director: John Luessenhop
Why does Hollywood keep turning out relentlessly routine action thrillers such as this one and the recent Armored? DVD sales has to be the answer: after all, the cast, all of whom have made better or more commercial films, will look impressive on the box.
Elba, Walker, Christensen, Brown and Ealy are expert robbers who have just castled a bank: their one job for the year. But a former comrade, Ghost - Tip Harris, also one of the film's producers, but struttingly giving its worst performance - sucks (or is it suckers?) them into a security van robbery worth $12million.
He plans to double-cross them via a rather amusing (and badly acted) gang of Russian mobsters - don't try to understand the ins and outs of all this - leaving Ghost to make off with all the money. He's trailed, though, by dogged detective Dillon, whose devotion to duty, in spite of a bent partner (Hernandez) has already cost him his marriage.
Dillon spots Ghost making contact with Betts (Elba) and is convinced something big is going down. When Elba's junkie sister (Jean-Baptiste from TV's Without a Trace) steals some of the bank proceeds and tries to pass a marked note, Dillon knows he's right.
It's the kind of film where everyone is destined to shoot each other at the end, although the film does resist the old cliché of millions of dollars in banknotes fluttering all over the airfield which forms the backdrop to the climax of this grindingly ordinary crimeflick.
David Quinlan
USA 2010. UK Distributor: Sony (Screen Gems). Colour by deluxe.
107 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.
Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.
Review date: 30 Sep 2010