Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Take’ On Netflix, Where Idris Elba & Richard Madden Begrudgingly Team Up To Stop French Terrorists

A few years ago, Idris Elba and Game of Thrones star Richard Madden starred in an action/spy thriller called The Take (or Bastille Day) that had a hard time with its theatrical release due to the Paris terror attacks of 2015 and the 2016 Nice truck attack. Thanks to its recent debut on Netflix, however, The Take seems to be finding a second life on streaming. We’re here to find out if it’s just another generic title to add to the pile, or if it’s worth …taking… up your time. 

THE TAKE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Michael Mason (Richard Madden) is the king of pickpockets. Like, he’d make the entire cast of Now You See Me jealous. We’re first introduced to the dashing American ex-pat living in Paris when he employs the help of a female friend to walk around nude at a popular tourist destination to distract unwitting victims. He nabs wallets, phones, and the like, and leaves her on the Metro the moment he feels like he might be discovered. While he continues on his merry pickpocketing way, he winds up stealing a bag from a woman (Charlotte Le Bon) who was supposed to bomb an empty office building that evening. When he realizes there’s nothing worth stealing in the bag (the bomb is concealed in a teddy bear), he leaves it behind – only to have it detonate moments later, killing four people. Now the target of a manhunt involving French intelligence and the CIA, Mason plans to run for it. This may all have gone according to plan if CIA Agent Sean Briar (Idris Elba) wasn’t hot on his tail, and after a very intense rooftop chase, he’s brought in for questioning – and Briar seems to believe him.

The unlikely pair spend the rest of The Take on a mission to stop a looming terror threat and prove Mason’s innocence, all while staying out of the violent hands of the criminals behind this plot. Briar and Mason may seem like your typical unconventional buddy duo, but Briar’s knack for reckless behavior and Mason’s flightiness make for a testy relationship. Their race against the clock to stop these terror plots before it’s too late results in some fast-paced car sequences, intense shootouts, and unexpected twists and turns, all culminating in a showdown that will change everything.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The Take feels like pretty much all the other B-level action/spy thrillers (or as I like to call them, Angsty Dad Movies) out there. You know what I mean. Your dad will, too.

Performance Worth Watching: She may be playing one of the most tried-and-true roles in the genre – yes, we’ve seen the ‘superior who takes a chance on a wild agent and pays the price’ character one too many times to count – but Kelly Reilly is undeniably dazzling, as is her way. She seems to pop up in everything these days, and I am not complaining.

Memorable Dialogue: For some reason I jotted down an exchange between Briar and Mason in the car as Mason attempts to cut a deal: “Pinky promise?” he says. “Get the fuck out of here,” Briar responds. If their characters had the kind of dynamic that allowed for that kind of banter, it really would have worked, been a nice moment of levity. And that’s why I flagged it – because it was another example of how the filmmakers failed to create characters worthy of their actors.

Sex and Skin: This is not the kind of spy thriller where the sexy spies forget about the high stakes action happening outside and get busy. Nope. Nothing sexy here whatsoever. (Well, except Elba and Madden).

Our Take: Usually, I’d be inclined to write off The Take as just another subpar action thriller, but where this movie goes wrong is actually pretty interesting to me. The two leads feel miscast or perhaps just victims to bad writing; Elba is so damn charming that he’s hardly believable as this grizzled, lawless asshole. Sure, he pulls off some cool stunts and delivers some of the flick’s most badass lines of dialogue, but there’s no way he’s a nasty, rebellious jerk. I just don’t buy it. The same can be said for Madden, whose portrayal of the master pickpocket with some deep seated childhood trauma is perfectly acceptable, but not particularly endearing or interesting. There just aren’t layers, and while I certainly felt a little bad for the sticky situation he wound up in, I found it hard to get totally emotionally invested. For someone who delivered such strong performances on Game of Thrones and Bodyguard, Madden sure doesn’t do a lot here, and it’s likely because he has so little to work with.  The thin writing of the film’s two leads only make for lackluster exchanges where there may have been funnier or more emotionally engaging ones; it’s not that Elba and Madden don’t have any on-screen chemistry. They just never get the chance to try. There aren’t any real characters in The Take, only a paint-by-numbers cast of caricatures who obediently stay inside the lines.

One dimensional characters would be one fault to overcome, but the predictability of the plot and the unfocused messaging also hurt The Take. Anonymous-style protestor videos, anti-police protests, government corruption, the cost of being an undercover operative, and foreign intelligence conflicts are all juggled simultaneously (and poorly), resulting in a confused attempt at saying… something? All while conforming to a formulaic structure that lacks much heart. And it didn’t have to be that way; plenty of flicks may hit the exact same story beats and feel stale as hell, but with a little heart and smarter political commentary tossed in, they avoid these pedestrian pitfalls. Unfortunately, The Take is not so lucky.

To The Take‘s credit, it is all packed into a lean 90 minutes, and some of the action sequences (when not shot on nauseating handheld) are admittedly compelling. It’s fun to watch Elba be a badass, but it would have been more so if his character was one we actually felt like rooting for. With a cast this great – Elba, Madden, and the always wonderful Kelly Reilly – the fact that The Take is not remotely memorable feels like something of a tragedy. The Take is not offensively bad, just utterly forgettable and bland. If you have 90 minutes to spare and not much brain capacity, this may totally be your jam. Just don’t expect anything you’re going to want to recommend to your friends.

Our Call: SKIP IT… but know that it’s not the worst option for a little mindless action thriller viewing. The Take is exceedingly average, marked by some occasionally cringeworthy dialogue exchanges, thin characters, and a painfully predictable plot. That said, Idris Elba and Richard Madden are extremely hot. So do what you will with that information.

Jade Budowski is a freelance writer with a knack for ruining punchlines and harboring dad-aged celebrity crushes. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski.

Stream The Take on Netflix