If you're curious about the title, that's from the job description of the main characters, a group of high end robbers - they 'take' for a living. No, it's not as well written or acted as De Niro describing how "I takes scores, that's what I do" - even if that's the level of crew I think we're supposed to be watching. They start out robbing a bank in an enjoyably over the top manner. Then we meet anguish filled too deep into the job cliche cop Matt Dillon. After which an old member of the criminal brain (and hipster) trust returns from prison. He's got a score in mind that seems too good to be true. They don't quite trust him, and are reluctant as the job breaks all of their "rules." Apparently they didn't get the memo that if you're doing scores you need to be able to walk away from everything you care about in 30 seconds flat. Or seen any heist movie which would have told them trying for this one last big score out of nowhere was a bad idea. Though this is a crew that directly steals their plan from one of the more famous film heists. In fact one that's been remade by now - the second time it seems as an extended commercial for the Mini. And in case you think I'm imagining this connection - the characters title their plan as an homage the movie. So yeah, maybe they're not as clever as they think they are...
As you may be starting to realize from my less than subtle commentary one can see things coming from a mile away. If the film had as much style as it seemed to believe it did then it'd be fine nonetheless. But we're generally just shown the characters acting cool in music laden montages or while wearing tiny hipster hats. Often both at once. There are some brief moments of action that are well played (particularly a parkour chase sequence) - but mostly it's guys posing in dark leather filled environs looking cool. I couldn't exactly tell but I don't think the audience was that off from me in opinion. There was a fair amount of laughter at what I'm sure wasn't intended points in the story (such as death scenes). Though someone did yell out "go white guy" at a choice moment suggesting they were into it. Sadly that's one of the better moments in the film (the comment from the audience, not the scene).
Predictable enough I'm sure you can spot most of the twists in the first 10 minutes. No great truly memorable action scenes, cliche ridden writing, and some strange directorial choices. Not a lot to recommend this one unless you're just going to enjoy watching the beefcake on screen. It's always nice for me to see a brief glimpse of Stringer Bell via Idris Elba onscreen. But not enough to recommend this movie.
I'd also say that this was ones of the strangest product placements I've seen in a while. Been cornered by the police, don't want to go back to jail and decide to go out in a blaze of shotgun blazing glory? What better beverage to have as your last shot of liquid courage than The Macallan 30 year old scotch. Now don't get me wrong, that's probably not the worst choice, and I certainly appreciate their sponsorship at SXSW. But is that really how you want your product positioned? At the very least it seems like it's a pretty limited market segment.
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