The Take/Bastille Day
(2016)
Director: James Watkins
(Eden Lake/Woman in Black)
One of the better
films 2006 never made
Now do not get me wrong, this is by no means a bad film but
simply wasted potential succumb to the poor creativity of its screenplay. You’d
imagine a lead duo of Idris Elba (Luther) & Richard Madden (Bodyguard) as a
brutish CIA agent and a wise-cracking pick pocketer attempting to foil a
terrorist plot would be something of a gold mine. Unfortunately, that never
comes to fruition. The Take has kernels of an entertaining action thriller with
some well-done set-pieces, political intrigue and social commentary. But none
of it ever appears to get off the ground as the film fails to capture any sort of
voice or style that would lodge it firmly in the memory. The film falls between
the fault lines of films such as 21 (MIT students are trained by their professor to count
cards for a Vegas heist) and Now You See Me (four magicians’ part of a revenge
plot that turns into action schlock in the second half). Yet what sets those
two films apart are the central performances. At no point in the ninety-minute
run time during The Take do we feel any authentic chemistry between the two
leads, despite their talent. This simply comes down to the mediocrity of the
script. Some of the skull-scrapping dialogue (‘This is not our fight’ / ‘He’s
always running away from something, usually himself’ / and the unforgiveable
‘We’re not so different you and I’) is almost as distracting as the two
leads American accents. Also, the story never wishes to slow down in order for our
characters to connect emotionally. So many scenes appear to be just cobbled together so we can arrive at the next action set-piece as soon as possible. On the whole, there is a core of an engaging
and exciting action thriller struggling to break free from the shackles of an
underdeveloped story.
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