Takers

So, I (finally) saw Takers tonight. I heard from a friend that it was a "good-bad movie." Meaning for a bad movie it was pretty good. Meaning there was a sorta okay plotline to all that eye candy. From jump, I knew I was gonna like the movie (I can't bring myself to say film..). So I was gonna like it with or without sound. Put Idris Elba, Michael Ealy, Hayden Christianson, Chris Brown, Paul Walker and TI together and it's gonna be a pleasing visual. Anyways, I digress. Here are my final thoughts on it:

***SPOILER ALERT***

- I thought it's interesting as a black movie. Because it is decidedly a black movie - the vast majority of the characters are black and many of the unnamed characters (like members of the police) were played by black actors even though there was nothing to necessitate this. But, it's a black film that has mass appeal that is not predicated on blackness or black stereotypes. It strives to be, first and foremost - an action film. And it seems to have succeeded. Now, I'm unsure if Hayden and Walker were brought in as the trust-inducing, safe white people to create a wider mass appeal. But if that were the point, they flip it on its head during the film as they play the "trust-inducing, safe white people" who prey on peoples implicit trust of everything white. For example, Walker pretends to be a security guard to flag down a news helicopter, he seemed to have chosen because of his whiteness. Maybe that was just an intense reading. But, I found it clever how the roles of each of the characters was chosen in the movie by my man Idris. Shit, when white guy had the opportunity to save his ass and literally leave the black guys in a big black hole, he ended up being the most crazy one and did what he had to do to get the job done.

- I also found the portrayal of dysfunctional black families interesting. Not sure what to make out of it but surprising for an action movie, there were families. Idris and his (crackhead) sister who's relationship was loving but dysfunctional. He wanted her in rehab, she was obviously not down for rehabilitation. She says he's ungrateful because she raised him and he basically just calls her a crackhead. Coupled with her constant pleas to return to an idyllic home (which doesn't happen), and his promises to make it happen. It's not an entirely unrealistic portrayal of addiction, but it also doesn't really move the plot anywhere. On the other hand, Ealy's character is big brother to Chris Brown's. They briefly discuss visiting their father in jail but Brown refuses to go there - instead they promise to build him a house. In the end, they walk to their deaths together, guns blazing. Each family is shown as complicated but loving. There is no story to any of the white characters. I wonder whether the dysfunction is there to explain why they are "takers" - it's hard to imagine the writers thinking much deeper. The only seemingly functional relationship is between Ealy's character and that girl from Avatar. But that's destroyed in the end too.

- I found it interesting that TI's character, Ghost, was the bad guy and the hood ass one. Not that any of them were particularly bad but he's the standout in that dept. Traditional roles of good and bad are explored as you see Idris and Ealy attempting to care for their families - intimate, humanizing plot lines. While the nice police officer is found to be corrupt and the "uncorrupt" but abusive and vicious one is a bad father. All the robbers except Ghost seem decidedly wholesome - well except all the robbery stuff. But anyways the teasing out of good/bad was a pleasant surprise for such a (good) bad movie.

- my final point is that all the men were finnnnnne. But Hayden, Ealy and Idris were standouts. :)