Takers (2010)

Directed by John Luessenhop. Starring Matt Dillon, Idris Elba, Jay Hernandez, Tip “T.I.” Harris, Paul Walker, Hayden Christensen, Michael Ealy, Chris Brown, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Zoe Saldaña, Glynn Turman, Steve Harris, Gideon Emery, Johnathan Schaech. [R]

Slick but cliché-addled programmer where cops Dillon and Hernandez try to expose and arrest a skillful crew of professional thieves led by Elba, preferably in time to prevent a lucrative armored truck heist. Although reasonably well-crafted, it’s hard to get wrapped up in the exploits of such thinly-developed characters stuck in a derivative storyline. Tough to enjoy merely as a brainless thriller because of the irritating soundtrack and a lot of bad acting (even from some of the performers who traditionally turn in solid work). Not even the action scenes can save it, which includes an exhausting foot chase through several buildings in downtown L.A. that doesn’t know when to quit. Might be worth watching if the viewer was somehow able to reach through the screen and smack the porkpie hat off Christensen’s head, but sadly that kind of technology does not yet exist. “T.I.” also co-produced.

38/100