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Powerful

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

A charming pickpocket, a CIA agent with unorthodox practices and a bunch of villains who can mysteriously infiltrate swat teams pretty much tell what the movie is all about. The one dimensional, dispassionate, taciturn antihero character initially looked funny with Arny starring in Terminator movies and alike. However, when others (Van Damme, Rock, etc.) started to mimic the same wooden acting style, they looked and became outright boring. In this cheesy action movie, the "cool", disinterested acting of Idris Elba evokes the same bad feelings. The plot is so predictable that the pace of the unfolding events always lags behind your guess. This is an action movie that I fell asleep in the last 20 min. or so. The only good thing about it is some nice Paris scenes in the background.

This is at best a 4/10 straight to TV movie so only watch if you have nothing else in mind. It's not deserving of its IMDB 6.3 score in the slightest and surely must have been manipulated or voted up by the Idris Elba fan club At the half way mark you will question whether to stop the movie or see it through. The acting, plot and production all got significantly worse as the movie progressed and even the end credits are no respite from Idris Elba's terribleness as he offers an ear murdering croak of a spoken word song that to be fair does reward the viewer with confirmation that this is truly an awful movie. Idris you can do better than risk your career leading such a weak script with laughable dialogue and by a writer/director with so little experience which is largely from a few tv shows. If this is what now stands for a 6/10 from IMDB I'm raising my bar to never watching anything under a 7.

Michael Mason (Richard Madden) is an American pickpocket in Paris, thieving to make a living.A case he steals goes off as it contained a bomb. Now he is hunted by the French police and a CIA agent based in the city, Sean Briar (Idris Elba.)They uncover a conspiracy at play to blame Muslims for the bombing atrocities while anti fascist protesters campaign against police brutality.The Take is a routine but underwhelming thriller. There are a few twists that involve corrupt cops but Elba is wasted as the maverick CIA agent who is frankly a bit dull.The film also has too many British actors playing Americans, surely the producers could afford some genuine American actors!

I was trying to work in a 'Taken' pun somewhere, but, try as I might, 'The Take' isn't that much like Liam Neeson's 'Taken' saga to warrant its inclusion. If you want to know what 'The Take' is like then I'd describe it as one of those – oh-what-do-you-call-them – type films. In other words, those films that fall into that middle-of-the-road category that you watch because you kind of like them, but probably won't remember them in X amount of days.The only thing that makes it less forgettable than the rest is the ever-reliable Idris Elba who plays a CIA agent based in a European city (which I think was Paris, however it's been over a week since I watched the film, so details are already a little bit sketchy!). Anyway, a young thief (played by Richard Madden who was best-known for his 'Rob Stark' in 'Game of Thrones') accidentally steals a handbag containing a terrorist's bomb (see, kids? Crime doesn't pay!). So, when it goes off, all the authorities think it's him. Luckily Mr Elba can see the thief through the smoke and picks him up first, allowing the pair of them a little time to clear the thief's name, bring the real culprits to justice and also stop another attack on the capital. All in a day's work for Idris.So, expect the shoot-outs, expect the car chases and expect a reasonable amount of banter between the straight-laced Idris and the anti-hero Madden. I know I'm being a little flippant when I'm describing it, but it's a decent enough affair. It has everything you'll want from a thriller, with the possible exception of originality. It's nothing you haven't seen before (sometimes better, sometimes worse). The two leads play off each other well enough to at least make this worth a watch. How many times you'll want to watch it afterwards may be another matter.If you're a fan of either of the two main leads, or just can't get enough of those films that – sort of – feel a bit like the 'Bourne' franchise (i.e. chases across European cities pursued by rogue agents) then you may get more than most out of this flick. Otherwise, it's basically one of those 'rent-before-you-buy' type films. If it's on Netflix or Amazon Instant video – it should fill a gap in your viewing schedule.