Takers / Rated PG-13 for violence, sex and language
In the good old days you could show crime and robbery on film but it was a big no-no to show the bad guys “get away with it”. In the original “Oceans 11” Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack do a great job of knocking over a group of Las Vegas casinos only to see almost all of the money go up in smoke in the end. This was because morality played a role in film making. Although Takers is full of clichés and scenes we have seen before it does, in a way, make a return to the good old days. Takers are a small, tightly knit group of guys who combine to pull off high tech burglaries supposedly because they like to spend lots of money but are also interested in laying away retirement money due to the imminent failure of the Social Security System. They live well. They are smart. They get away with it. After their latest burglary an old theft mate gets out of prison and demands their participation in a really big armor car heist. He causes complications. Also hot on their trail are a couple of L.A.P.D. cops, the main one of the two being a now 46 year old Matt Dillon. This causes even more serious complications. MD’s last film in 2009 was “Armored” which was also about an armored car heist. Is he in a rut? The film moves along at a leisurely pace since not much happens between the opening heist scene and the long delayed armored car heist near the end. Sub plots seem to take up a lot of time. The prime one which is supposed to be a big surprise turns out to be as surprising as seeing V.P. Joe Biden with his foot in his mouth. Again. The stunts are pretty good especially a long foot chase which seems to be a mirror image of the opening scene of the most recent version of “Casino Royale”. As the film nears a conclusion we get attempts to recreate “The Wild Bunch”, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and several more recent shoot-em-ups without an excuse or apology. Matt Dillon does a terrific job as the tough guy with angst. He is a no nonsense cop who does everything but water board the suspects because he left his pail at the office. The film is not overly long but the pace is not quite up to keeping a high speed thrill movie moving much beyond 55 miles per hour. Matt Dillon’s next movie is scheduled to be a big screen version of the long running TV show “Gunsmoke”. James Arness played Matt Dillon on TV but in a brilliant piece of casting the name above the title will be “Matt Dillon is Matt Dillon“. Brilliant. Meanwhile, Takers is okay but probably for fans of the genre only. Any Takers?
Rated 2.22 out of 4.0 out of lines which go “This is a stickup. Reach for the sky”