The Take Reviews

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this flick but I thought it would be neat to see an action flick taking place in France during the French national day. Well, to be honest, I really struggled to get into this movie. Indeed, the beginning was just so lame with above all such poor dialogues. As a result, within the first 5 minutes, I had already lost any interest I might have had in the damned thing. Fortunately, later on, it got a least a little bit more entertaining as the action scenes were decent enough. Above all, Idris Elba and Richard Madden had a nice chemistry together. Elba was also really convincing but they pushed it too far by having him handling everything on his own. I mean, that Richard Madden's pickpocket would tag along to identify Charlotte Le Bon's character more or less made sense but why would they go along and assist him afterwards was just too far-fetched. Of course, they also had to finish up with an underwhelming action climax with Elba on his own taking down a whole bunch of French special force operatives. Concerning the plot, it was pretty much a weak  copy of 'Die Hard with a Vengeance' but the backdrop of social unrest was actually quite realistic and interesting and, with slightly more ambition, they could have actually delivered a gritty and maybe even thoughtful action flick but that would have been obviously too much to ask. Anyway, to conclude, I think I was actually rather generous with my rating here but I guess the damned thing might still be worth a look but only if you have a weak spot for the genre.