Takers: a copycat film with an all-star cast

Matt Dillon stars in an explicit cut-and-paste assemblage of other, better, heist movies.

Takers

Director: John Luessenhop. 

Starring: Matt Dillon, Idris Elba Paul Walker, Jay Hernandez 

**

If a curious Martian landed on Earth, wandered into a multiplex and caught an early screening of Takers, he might believe he was watching a movie about tough LA bank robbers and tougher LA cops, full of originality, visual style and narrative verve.

The rest of us, however, even those of us with modest movie-going habits, will only see an explicit cut-and-paste assemblage of other, better, heist movies, and will be ultimately forced to wonder: when does a Hollywood filmmaker cross that fine line between artistic homage and outright theft?

There's an early bank-robbing scene in Takers that's almost a shot-for-shot copy of the same in Heat. There's a running chase that comes straight from Point Break. And then the film climaxes with a hotel shoot-out that's almost identical to the finale of True Romance.

In all this Matt Dillon duly gives another amiable, if workman-like, turn as an ornery rule-breaking cop called Welles who is on the trail of a slick gang of high-class "boosters", led by the rising star Idris Elba as the super-cool Jennings, and Paul Walker as his majordomo Rahway. Typically, the gang decide to attempt that "one last score" that will set them up for retirement, but Welles, naturally, has other ideas.

Thus, with rookie cop Hatcher (Jay Hernandez) by his side, the stage is set for a "crime doesn't pay" finale that is nothing if not, yes, predictable. Furthermore, the director shoots Porsches, Range Rovers and BMWs even more lovingly than he shoots actors. Which, perhaps, says it all.

* Kevin Maher