Takers is standard hollywood action fare,  full of guns, money and all around excess, but somehow it ends up feeling less like a guilty pleasure and more like a waste of time.

A group of successful bank robbers (Paul Walker, Idris Elba, Hayden Christensen, Micheal Ealy and Chris Brown) get in on a risky heist initiated by newly freed convict Ghost (play by real-life ex-con and rapper Tip “T.I” Harris).  Not all goes as planned though, and soon detectives Welles (Matt Dillon) and Hatcher (Jay Hernandez) are hot on the thieves’ trail.

The gratuitous helicopter explosion sets the tone early on and most of the film reads like an unedited music video. Thankfully though, some good old fashioned suspense arises at the climax of the heist. For a few minutes the dizzyingly fast-paced camera work and (far too close) close-ups make for a couple exciting action sequences. Unfortunately, the side stories meant to make the characters more sympathetic fall flat. So while the action is interesting, the outcome isn’t.

Takers is too much, trying too hard.

by Allison Cameron

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