“Takers” is reportedly the largest-budgeted production ever from Sony’s Screen Gems division, at $32 million, and several action setpieces show where much of that money must have gone. Alternating between sun-streaked Los Angeles streets and glam, glum-lit club spaces, director John Luessenhop’s bitter, cynical cops-vs.-robbers-vs.-robbers-vs.-Russians über-mastermind heist movie resembles nothing so much as a late 1990s Hong Kong action entry. Luessenhop is sufficiently fond of the city to show street signs in each major scene, including full-on close-ups in one instance. The Hill Street setting of the story’s big caper evokes “Heat” (and “Inception,” shot after this film) but also the thriving exteriors of Kowloon in movies by John Woo and others in the last century. Luessenhop is fond of jerky camera motion that works against spatial sense, depriving some of the pleasures that extended location work should offer. And, in the increasingly operatic shootout in the film’s third act, the soundtrack is reduced to music and thudding sounds as gangsters systematically shoot up several hotel rooms and a corridor. His fondness for certain layered compositions and nocturnal light sources resemble the artfully artsy cinematography of Mark Pellington’s films (such as the Screen Gems-released “The Mothman Prophecies”). Slow motion, the flurry of feathers as if from Woo’s own doves, men taking one for other men, all from the HK playbook, but the sound design in that extended scene may be the most stylish thing in a movie populated by characters who dress like extras in late-night cable ads for an expensive new liquor positioned for hard-partying twentysomething money-spenders. The preview audience seemed most appreciative of racial conflict; catcalls and cheers greeted the murder of a policeman. It’s not Walter Hill, but it’s a slick sensory swim. The ending hedges some bets, but its ice-cold immorality is blunt and refreshing, at least until huge whoops rose as the credits rolled. With Idris Elba, Matt Dillon, Paul Walker, Hayden Christensen, Chris Brown, Michael Ealy, Steve Harris, Jay Hernandez, Marianne Jean-Baptiste (“Secrets & Lies”) and Zoe Saldana in a brief fragrant flurry of close-ups. Poor digital projection at the screening I caught made certain scenes look subpar; the 35mm version is likely more pleasing to the eye. 107m. Widescreen. (Ray Pride)
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
Uncanny Ally: A Review Of M3GAN "M3GAN" sells itself in its first handful of seconds in how it introduces the handiwork of roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams, "Get Out") and her present product, PurrPetual Petz from Funki.
Spawn Sacrifice: A Review Of The Creator "The Creator" is richly detailed, punchy, pulpy, punkish entertainment that still has highly serious subjects in mind, without growing didactic and with substantial heart.
A Drag Getting Old: A Review Of Indiana Jones 5 In the protracted opening couple of reels, a very young, computer-crafted Harrison Ford plays a younger cultural marauder who first encounters the dull MacGuffin of the title.
“Takers” is reportedly the largest-budgeted production ever from Sony’s Screen Gems division, at $32 million, and several action setpieces show where much of that money must have gone. Alternating between sun-streaked Los Angeles streets and glam, glum-lit club spaces, director John Luessenhop’s bitter, cynical cops-vs.-robbers-vs.-robbers-vs.-Russians über-mastermind heist movie resembles nothing so much as a late 1990s Hong Kong action entry. Luessenhop is sufficiently fond of the city to show street signs in each major scene, including full-on close-ups in one instance. The Hill Street setting of the story’s big caper evokes “Heat” (and “Inception,” shot after this film) but also the thriving exteriors of Kowloon in movies by John Woo and others in the last century. Luessenhop is fond of jerky camera motion that works against spatial sense, depriving some of the pleasures that extended location work should offer. And, in the increasingly operatic shootout in the film’s third act, the soundtrack is reduced to music and thudding sounds as gangsters systematically shoot up several hotel rooms and a corridor. His fondness for certain layered compositions and nocturnal light sources resemble the artfully artsy cinematography of Mark Pellington’s films (such as the Screen Gems-released “The Mothman Prophecies”). Slow motion, the flurry of feathers as if from Woo’s own doves, men taking one for other men, all from the HK playbook, but the sound design in that extended scene may be the most stylish thing in a movie populated by characters who dress like extras in late-night cable ads for an expensive new liquor positioned for hard-partying twentysomething money-spenders. The preview audience seemed most appreciative of racial conflict; catcalls and cheers greeted the murder of a policeman. It’s not Walter Hill, but it’s a slick sensory swim. The ending hedges some bets, but its ice-cold immorality is blunt and refreshing, at least until huge whoops rose as the credits rolled. With Idris Elba, Matt Dillon, Paul Walker, Hayden Christensen, Chris Brown, Michael Ealy, Steve Harris, Jay Hernandez, Marianne Jean-Baptiste (“Secrets & Lies”) and Zoe Saldana in a brief fragrant flurry of close-ups. Poor digital projection at the screening I caught made certain scenes look subpar; the 35mm version is likely more pleasing to the eye. 107m. Widescreen. (Ray Pride)
