No Surrender Cinema: Takers
A pair of relentless cops, an old friend out of prison earlier than expected, and a score that seems to good to be true. These are the factors that the most charismatic crew of robbers this side of Ocean’s 11 is faced with in Takers, and I’d like to take some time to tell you what I think about these captivating criminals here in this edition of No Surrender Cinema!
Gordon Cozier (Idris Elba) is the de facto leader of a crew that consists of John (Paul Walker), brothers Jake and Jesse (Michael Ealy and Chris Brown), and AJ (Hayden Christensen). These guys are living the good life, using the proceeds from their robberies so that they can sit in the lap of luxury. You know, the type of life that has you frolicking in a pool with multiple women, driving fancy cars, and owning a lavish restaurant. Like any good group of criminals, they have their own code to abide by, which is that they normally lay low for a year or so between heists. All that is out the window when Ghost (TI), a member of the gang who took the fall for them a few years back, gets out of jail. It’s clear from the start that Ghost is a shady cat, but he just so happens to have a foolproof plan to rob an armored car and get them all some quick cash. The gang is hesitant, especially Jake (who is now engaged to Ghost’s ex-girlfriend), but eventually agree to the plan, even though we the viewer know that the old “we’re making an exception and breaking our own rules” trope is going to create a shitstorm.
As the crew does recon and prepares for the heist, which is happening in a mere five days time, they are being pursued by two detectives. Jack Welles (Matt Dillon) and Eddie Hatcher (Jay Hernandez) are frustrated with their lack of progress when it comes to cracking the case of these robberies, and they’re also facing internal pressure because of other circumstances. As Jack starts to uncover more and more about who may be pulling off all of these robberies, the rug is swept out from under him when Internal Affairs reveals that his own partner has been swiping from a drug dealer’s bankroll. Jack may be happy to know that he’s not the only one having a bad day lately, because as you might have expected, Ghost’s grand scheme doesn’t happen as intended. The crew intended to blow up the street that the armored car would drive down, unload the money, and escape into the catacombs under the city. When the explosion goes off too soon, the gang is ready to abandon ship, until Walker channels his Brian O’Connor character from the Fast and the Furious franchise and ensures their success by sending the armored car careening into the giant crater they’ve created in the road.
Welles and Hatcher catch wind of the explosion and deduce that it’s got to be the same guys they’ve been tracking, so they head to the scene of the crime. They catch sight of Jake making off with a bag full of armored car cash and give chase in parkour scene that was apparently a prerequisite for any action film released around this time frame (looking at you, Punisher: War Zone!). Things go from bad to worse for all involved when Hatcher corners Jesse and we hear a gun go off, and the next thing you know Eddie is bleeding out and Jesse is desperately trying to get back to his cohorts. There’s just one thing; when he does get back, he’s probably wishing he just kept running. Turns out that Ghost was not in fact on the up and up and sold the crew out to the Russian mob, and it’s not long before the hotel room is under siege. Gordon, John, Jake, Jesse and AJ wind up fighting for their lives in a shootout that claims the life of AJ, who sacrifices himself to make sure his friends make it to safety. The surviving members split up, only to discover that Ghost’s revenge goes deeper than just handing them over to the Russians. In addition to running off with the loot, Ghost has killed Lily and left her for Jake to find, which he does just as the sirens close in on him and his brother. With nowhere to run and nothing to lose, the brothers make their final stand against the cops, leaving Gordon and John as the last men standing. With Welles still in pursuit and Ghost making his getaway, everything culminates in a final showdown where more that one of our remaining players winds up with bullets lodged in his body.
Takers won’t catch anyone by surprise plot-wise, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it. Right from the jump it was obvious that Ghost was a villain that was going to screw his old buddies over, and with a central cast this big I had a feeling that not everyone was going to make it to the end credits alive. I will say that while the film’s main storyline made for an entertaining by-the-numbers heist flick, all of the subplots felt shoehorned in. Did Gordon really need to have a drug addict sister? If Hatcher needed the money so bad, why was he robbing random drug dealers and not trying to link up with our Gordon’s crew or Ghost? The only subplot that had any impact on the story was Lily leaving Ghost for Jake, and even then her death seemed to be done just to get Ghost over as a major heel and cause Jake to have nothing left to live for.
My only other grievance is that for as cool as the crew is, we know jack shit about them. Everyone in Takers is a caricature, with only Gordon getting any semblance of backstory. Walker, as John, ditches the boyish charm that helped turn the Fast films into a blockbuster franchise in favor of a more hardened portrayal. Although it worked for him as the rugged mob thug in Running Scared, here in Takers it felt a little forced. Here, it was actually Christiansen that won me over as AJ, and as someone who has never seen his much derided acting in the Star Wars franchise, I’ve enjoyed him in films like Awake and Jumper. His brawl with some Mafia goons inside of a trailer and his sacrifice during the standoff with the Russians during the films climax were both highlights in a film that features a number of major players who could have easily outshined him.
Takers gets rerun on cable quite often, and right now you can catch it on your friendly neighborhood Tubi app. Though it doesn’t break any new ground, this is one ensemble action piece that shouldn’t be missed. Filled some tremendous action sequences, a star-studded cast, and a fast-paced plot, Takers is the comfort food of crime films; you’ve had it hundreds of times before, but you’re still going to enjoy this serving.
