R&R People+Culture:Movies-Takers Review***SPOILER ALERT***

Takers has a very Four Brothers vibe about it. It's the same kind of set up: a mixed group of men (black and white) form a sort of "brotherhood" which provides the support they need to live the violent lives of thuggery that are either necessary for them to survive or for them to maintain their status of privilege and respect.

I thought Four Brothers was rather corny when I saw it back in '05 and the 2010 remix is just as corny in my opinion. I think that Takers is the kind of movie that could benefit from a prequel so that we can know how these men met and why the the profession of high tech thievery was so attractive to them. The characters seem to be randomly thrown together and united by a random purpose. Or maybe the problem is that the characters lack any depth beyond the fiery, I'm-out-for-mine type of personality that they all share. Seems kind of like lazy character development to me to stretch one character sketch over 6 characters.

The two police officers, Eddie Hatcher (played by Jay Hernandez) and Jack Welles ( played by Matt Dillon) offer a little more depth, but barely. Eddie's willingness to jeopardize his job for his sick son who need dialysis would have been almost touching, if it weren't for the fact that the scene right before Eddie's breakdown showed his supposedly sick son playing basketball like any normal kid. Things are not connecting here...I don't know if the average person who has to get dialysis at the rate that they were suggesting his son did would feel like balling the way this boy was.

There were many more inconsistencies like this one throughout the movie. I didn't understand why Jessie and Jake walked out to the front to be executed by the swat team or whatever law enforcement was out there at the end instead of trying to sneak out the back and live. I didn't understand why Lily randomly turned up dead. I also know I couldn't have been the only one who wondered why Jessie (Chris Brown) had to get hit by so many cars. And Hayden Christensen might want to brush up on his play dead skills because he looked like he was enjoying a rather peaceful slumber instead of being convincingly dead. T.I's character (Ghost) didn't make any sense at all to me, especially when he pretty much freestyles during the armored truck heist scene. Although I will say, that added a little unexpected humor to this wanna be action movie.

Overall I think that this movie is definitely a dude flick. It meets all criteria:

1. Beautiful Women (preferably naked) 2. Guns 3.Explosions 4.Fights

If the BF or the hubby drags you to this he definitely owes it to you to sit through any and all sequels of the Sex and the City franchise. Plus Louboutins.