Takers Review

As unabashed a 'homage' to Michael Mann's Heat as can be mounted this side of a copyright infringement, wherein a gang of thieves (Paul Walker, Chris Brown, Hayden Christensen in a porkpie) are stalked by reckless cops through the City of Angels. Certainly, there are plenty worse things to Xerox, and director John Lussenhop swears over his firefly midnight vistas of LA, chic nightspots wallpapered in tangerine light, and ceaseless urban vibes to soundtrack the sleek-suited multi-ethnic crew in their criminal efficiency. But there's no escaping that its moves are painfully preordained, its existential mood-talk half-witted and it has Matt Dillon in the Pacino mould and stoic Idris Elba trying De Niro. Which in fact makes it a rip-off of LA Takedown.