The Take

Granted, the inside bank heist plot is implausible in 'Bastille Day' (retitled 'The Take' for its USA release), but the director James Watson paces the film so well with non-stop tense moments, and taps Idris Elba's innate tension-building talents and ability to deliver quick dialogue (as he does with Sorkin's trademark banter in 'Molly's Game'), that one overlooks the spectacularly unrealistic story of the intended heist.

This is a pure entertainment escapism - an action film that does not pretend to be more than it is.

Therefore, I'm giving two thumbs up 👍👍 for a good fun-to-watch action flick. Grab a dish of popcorn and enjoy. Note my 7 Rating means it's good (like an 8 by most User standards).

Richard Madden and Jose Garcia are well-casted.

Is it just me that thinks Garcia looks and acts a lot like Harvey Kietel in his 30s?!

Michael Mason (Richard Madden) is an American pickpocket in Paris. Zoe (Charlotte Le Bon) is an anti-fascist who is recruited to place a bomb in an empty right wing party building. Sean Briar (Idris Elba) is a reckless CIA agent assigned to Paris. The three are pulled into a conspiracy to heighten the political atmosphere for a Die Hard scheme.

This proves to me that Idris Elba could have been a great Bond. The story is a good convoluted thriller. The only thing missing is a truly fun buddy chemistry. Madden needs to be a little funnier to make the pairing better. I'm reminded of 48 Hrs or various other odd couples. This is not quite up to that level. It's not as fun but it's a solid thriller.

You have to forget that, during the making of this action film shot in Paris, the French capital was the scene of a brutal terrorist attack. Instead you have to go with the flow - and, boy, does it flow with constant flights and fights and a frenetically-cut chase sequence on rooftops that could have come straight out of a Bourne movie.

British director James Watkins has given us a thoroughly entertaining romp that never lets up and looks great. The plotting is utterly implausible but the hard-as-diamond core is the former CIA agent Briar played wonderfully by Britain's Idris Elba in a role that could be seen as an audition to be the next James Bond. Not at all sure about his 'singing' over the credits though ...

Surprised this isn't at least in the 7's on here. Elba is excellent, no cheesy crap Bond esque love interests. Just a proper thriller with some great twists and decent action sequences. Some comical moments in a non Marvel universe cheesy way.

Nothing incredibly new with the plot, but it does keep you interested for the duration. The end hints at a sequel, which could be interesting.

If you like a good action / thriller - this is the best I've seen in a long while. Not quite as good as the old Bournes, but certainly better than recent Bonds.

This film (unfortunately) is most famous because it was set to come out at the same time as a Islamic terrorist attack in France, and one of the reasons I waited a while to watch this film was because I was wary of how Muslims would be portrayed in it etc. Let me without spoilers tell you this film is almost entirely unpolitical, with the 'Islamic threat' so far down the radar it can't even be said to be a theme.

Now on to the film! Do you like Idris Elba? If you don't, stop reading this review and never watch this film. This is his film. He plays a bad-ass CIA agent (there is an irony of a British actor playing a CIA man stationed in France) who does not like to follow rules, and he is on the trail of a master pick pocket (Richard Madden) who gets wrapped up in a plot to blow up France. Cliché, yes, but the film does avoid some obvious ones, surprising pleasantly at some points.

Elba is menacing, cool and always fantastic, and all of his co-stars pull their weight, but none are particularly likable, and they just have very little chemistry together. But, this is an action, thriller, so who really cares about that. The action is solid, but not mind blowing. The balance between action and thriller is about right, and the director does not get distracted with too many side characters or plots.

This is about as standard a movie as you can get, with the only real plus being Elba. He needs to do more action movies, he needs to be the next Bond. 6.5, but IMDb won't let me give it that score so I bump to a 7 on Elba's performance!