Takers (7/10)

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[/caption]This was much better than expected. Although difficult to relate, but it sure was a fun ride.Unlike Ocean's Eleven or The Italian Job, although there were a lot of similarities too, this movie portrayed a grittier and "rougher" side of things.Heist movies always have the audience rooting for the criminals. Takers had that element too but then again, we also have Matt Dilon and Jay Hernandez's characters playing the cops that would progress greatly with the story too. So there were instances where I wasn't really rooting for anyone when the chase began.Director John Luessenhop, even if this was only his second movie in a decade, seemed to really knew what he was doing. The big explosions were great, the loud action sequences were exciting, the little drama here and there fit very well into the whole story. Only thing wasn't done too well was how Luessenhop tried to hide some of the intricate action sequence and fight scenes using shaky camera effect. Sometimes this was done very cleverly, other times it didn't work.However, loopholes crept up too in places where the director opted for effect rather than logic. The movie had a lot of style and so substance had to suffer. What I really wanted to see was the background of each of the players, but I got none of that. So it was a little strange when we see nerdy and skinny Hayden Christenssen take down a few big thugs on his own. Or Chris Brown all of a sudden turn into a parkour expert.There was one sequence that really did not work at all. That was to have T.I. commentate. If it wasn't for all the action  going on, my skin would have crawled.