Bastille Day (2016)

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.

while the movie is fairly good and keeps your attention with non-stop action.... the location usage is ridiculous to anyone who has been to Paris... take for example the chase scene... first it starts at what appears to be around the 16th Arr, and then suddenly he jumps through a window and is now near les halles and hotel de ville.. and then when he runs though les halles and he exits and gets caught, he suddenly is kilometers away in the suburbs near mairie de lilas metro at a small covered outdoor market.. lol.... .. other are just as ridiculous... ...

A young pickpocket and a unorthodox CIA agent find themselves working together to prevent another terrorist attack in France.Tragic real life terrorist events caused Bastille Day to be renamed The Take in the UK and events sent it somewhat into obscurity with the marketing toned down. Director James Watkins offers a well thought- out action thriller in the vein of Die Hard and the best of Luc Besson. The Take is a surprising piece of entertainment with a few twists thrown in for good measure in what could have been a simple frustrating actioner. Not only are the action fight setups impressive writer Andrew Baldwin's story cleverly gives a broad stroke insight into terrorism, activists and corruption. Even with its shootouts, punch ups and chases it's not action for action sake, it is plot driven.The characters are shades of grey, packed with screen presence Idris Elba is on fine form as hardened agent Sean Briar. Richard Madden (of Game of Thrones fame) is pickpocket Michael who is at the wrong place at the wrong time and who gets accused of being a bomber gives a solid performance. The array of supporting actors especially the bad guys are quiet developed and add some weight to the story. Notable are memorable José Garcia as Victor and Thierry Godard's Rafi.It's no Leon or Bourne but it's up in the the action thriller scale of the likes of London has Fallen, From Paris with Love, but the on location feel to the underside of the French capitol to Watkins' credit gives the film its own unique look and down to earth credence compared to the latter. The Take has characters that you can care about tide up in a very compelling yarn.Overall, it's well filmed and entertaining, hopefully it'll find itself with a sequel as the chemistry dynamic of the selfless subtle two leads works well. Predicable at times but recommended.