SYNOPSIS: TAKERS takes you into the world of a notorious group of criminals (Idris Elba, Paul Walker, T.I., Chris Brown, Hayden Christensen and Michael Ealy) who continue to baffle police by pulling off perfectly executed bank robberies. They are in and out like clockwork, leaving no evidence behind and laying low between heists. But when they attempt to pull off one last job with more money at stake than ever before, the crew may find their plans interrupted by a hardened detective (Matt Dillon) who is hell-bent on solving the case.

REVIEW: Heist films revolved around the ultimate master plan of an individual or individuals to break the rules and their avoidance of getting caught in the process. The majority of these films captivate audiences with its thrills and the cleverness of its stories. Takers has very few of these genre’s characteristics, as filmmakers gave the film an action/drama approach that basically broke the movie into two different films; a slow, boring, long overacted first half that takes forever to develop and an energetic breathless action second half that end up saving the film from a complete disaster.

Takers attempts to set some drama in its first half; however it seems like the filmmakers didn’t realize their limitation in terms of cast and plot. Most of the scenes in this first half are just dramatic cliché’s that have being used so many times that slowed down the film’s pace to appoint that I was regretting being in theater. To make things worst the filmmakers attempted to create all this melodrama with this cast. A cast that is exceptional in action sequences, but that is not at their best when it comes to drama department. When you start seeing Paul Walker as you best dramatic actor in a film, you know that something is wrong. 

The same thing can’t be said about the second half of the film, which turns out to be the completely opposite. A half full of creative stunts, excitement; including a 5 minutes foot chase that left me breathless. There is not doubt that director John Luessenhop and the cast brought the best to the table during this part of the film.

At the end there is so much adrenaline that indirectly makes you forget the disappointing beginning which almost self destroys the film and opens the doors of director John Luessenhop as a creative action film visionary.