The Takers are a band of sophisticated thieves that work wisely, and enjoy the finer things in life: Land Rovers, private rooms at exclusive clubs, expensive booze and cigars, and tailored clothes.  The George Clooney of this crew is certainly Gordon (Idris Elba), and his Brad Pitt is John (Paul Walker).  A former member of their crew named ‘Ghost’ (played by rapper T.I.) is released from a five year stint in prison, tracks down his former colleagues and convinces them to do one hurried, but very lucrative deal.  On the flip side, two  cops (Matt Dillon, and Jay Hernandez) are working against them.

The following contains minor spoilers.

I was a little astounded at the amount of material that was borrowed from The Italian Job.  The major heist pulled off in the film involves the gang hacking into the city system that controls street lights to help direct an armored truck to a specific location where explosives blow a hole in street where the crew is waiting below.  Really Leussenhop?  Four people are credited with writing the script, and this is the best you could come up with?  At one point, we’re asked to believe that Hayden Christensen (weighing in at a buck twenty tops, and wearing a fedora) could easily take on three enormous guidos with bats.

That’s not to say it was all bad.  There were hints and glimmers of a solid film.  Elba is quite captivating on screen, as always.  The talented Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays his crack head sister.  She’s always a pleasure to watch.  And it turns out that T.I. isn’t such a horrible actor.  I was slightly confused at the casting of Chris Brown, however.  Every time he leaned in to do a one-armed man huge, I wanted to shout out to the screen, ‘Careful, that dude’s going to bite you!’  The best part of the film is the first half, where time is allowed for the characters and suspense to build up at a nice, even keel.  Even after that, there are some thrilling action sequences that start out pleasing, but end up absurdly defying logic and physics.  It was a valiant effort, but in the end, it flops.

Bitchin' Stars: 1.5 out of 4 stars

Quarantine is co-written and directed by John Erick Dowdle (The Dry Spell, The Poughkeepsie Tapes).  It follows a news correspondent and her camera man, as they shadow a team of young firefighters for a night.  They mess around at the fire station, waiting for a call, when it finally comes.  They’re called to an old apartment building full of weird tenants.  An older woman is foaming at the mouth, and exhibits extremely aggressive tendencies.  She attacks one of the police officers trying to help her, and he’s severely wounded.  When they try to leave the building to get help, it turns out that those outside have blocked all the entrances, putting them all under quarantine, but providing them with no information.  Stuck in a creaky, extremely poorly lit building, the disease spreads slowly at first, and then frighteningly quickly.  Luckily, one of the tenants stuck there is a veterinarian, who, after a few hours of caring for the sick, finally realizes that a frothy mouth and extreme aggression may mean rabies!  And fortunate for us, the film crew was there filming the whole injustice!

The gonzo style of filming is quite effective here, even if it was still used to conveniently turn off in order to avoid explaining certain things.  The entire perspective of the viewer comes from the cameraman’s camera.  It’s not like this is original.  George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead, did the exact same thing earlier this year at Sundance and other festivals.  The Duplass brothers did it this year with Baghead as well (not to mention the scores of films that did it before them).  So while it’s not new subject matter, Dowdle did the genre proud with this effectively creepy film.  Lead actress Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) steals the majority of her scenes, and was convincingly scared.  There’s no lack of gore, and in this case, it’s warranted.  In the last ten minutes, Dowdle takes the easy way out and follows orthodox horror conventions, which was pretty disappointing.  However, while the film leaves something to be desired, it’ll make you jump, and squirm in your seat if nothing else.

Bitchin' Stars: 2 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes: 57% – Cream of the Crop: 38%

This is the red band trailer