Released: June 2021
Director: Christian Sesma
Not Rated
Run Time: 89 Minutes
Distributor: Shout! Factory
Genre: Action/Thriller
Cast:
Mickey Rourke: Patrick/Jack
Michael Jai White: Brian
Gillian White: Zara
James Russo: Schmidt
Jessica Uberuaga: Nancy
Priscilla Walker: Audrey
It seems like I’ve been reviewing a movie dealing with human trafficking at least once a week, doesn’t it? I mean, a week and a half ago I reviewed a horror flick called Girl Next, which took the topic of human trafficking and knocked it out into left field with really bizarre visuals and David Lynchian-style vibes. It was a lot better than I was anticipating it to be. Kidnapping thrillers are among my favorite kinds of movies because there’s usually a time crunch involved. When somebody gets abducted, the hero has a very limited amount of time to find the victim and/or the kidnappers or lose everything. When done right, a movie can be one of the most intense experience you will have at the movies. It needs to be very white-knuckle. Human trafficking, while a horrendous crime, can make for a very compelling thriller, IF it’s handled correctly. Otherwise, you inadvertently make a mockery of both the victims and their families in the quest for a cheap thrill. You don’t see a lot of these kinds of thrillers hit theaters very often, as most people tend to want to ignore the reality that something like human trafficking could possibly happen. Nope, these particular movies get put on direct-to-video or video-on-demand(VOD). Rarer still is a kidnap thriller made during the onset of a global pandemic, and that’s where Take Back comes in.
Take Back follows Zara, a successful businesswoman, her husband Brian and their daughter Audrey. Brian is a history teacher and a martial arts instructor, while Audrey is still in high school. Zara heads to a local coffee shop to get her daily dose of caffeine when she interrupts a thug threatening the employee. After taking him down, the video of Zara’s heroic efforts circulate the internet where they get the attention of the local sex trafficker, Patrick. Unknown to Brian, Patrick and Zara have history together as she was a victim of his sex trafficking operation. After discovering that Zara is still around, Patrick has Zara and Brian’s daughter, Audrey kidnapped. With the help of a detective, Brian and Zara race to save their daughter’s life. The base story here really isn’t that awful. It’s just very standard for these kinds of movies. Again, if the movie’s done well, it should be a thrilling ride from beginning to end. There’s a little bit of an issue with Take Back, however, and it’s one of many: The pacing is awful. I kid you not, there are moments in the movie where certain scenes just drag on and on and it doesn’t seem to end. These aren’t the action scenes either. THAT’S a whole different problem, and I’ll get to that in a bit. The pacing is off because the editing sucks.
Before I really go all ham into the things that really don’t work in this movie, I want to talk about what does. First and foremost, Michael Jai White and Gillian White. These two play Brian and Zara respectively. Michael Jai White is one of my favorite martial arts actors in the industry. Not only is he an excellent martial arts, but he is a top-notch actor as well. That’s a rare combination to find in actor these days. I fully admit that I really liked as Al Simmons in the 1997 adaptation of Spawn. Not a great movie, but White was perfect casting if there ever was any. White is really at his best when he’s supporting other actors like in Triple Threat. He’s fantastic. This is the first time that I’ve seen Gillian White in a movie. I had no idea who she was before hearing about this movie. From what I gathered, she’s also a talented actress and a martial artist in her own right. Their performance in Take Back is outstanding. It’s incredibly believable because in real life, they are husband and wife, so that makes the relationship between the two feel more real, and even more intense when Brian learns the truth. If nothing else, Michael and Gillian’s performances are what anchor this movie. The film may be very low-budget, but at least the locations feel real. Gillian also handles herself pretty well in the action sequences.
Now, let’s talk about what doesn’t work, which is almost everything else. I will be the first to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of Mickey Rourke. I don’t think he’s a terrible actor, he just makes bad decisions when it comes to film projects. It boggles my mind that Mickey Rourke got top billing for this movie, he’s not the main attraction. I don’t know if that was a selling point, but it didn’t work. His performance in this movie is abysmal. He is clearly only here for the check, because his character isn’t threatening at all. Patrick is a guy that loves dogs, but keeps girls poorly locked up in a garage. I don’t know what the director was trying to go for, but Patrick is one of the least threatening villains I’ve ever seen. His entire line delivery is incredibly one-note. He doesn’t raise his voice, and the one time that he shows SOME kind of emotion is when he smashes a guy’s head into a wall. That’s it. What about the action? Oh, dear. Did the film-makers go to the Paul Greengrass School of Fight Scenes? I only ask because the fight sequences are hard to follow as a result of the stupid shaky-cam that they employed. There’s one or two fights that you can see what’s going on, but that’s about it. Everything else is a jumbled mess, and that’s a shame, because we aren’t really given a chance to see what Gillian White can do martial arts-wise. Is it really that difficult to shoot an action scene using steady-cam? Shaky-cam is not realistic, it’s headache-inducing, and when you have talents like Michael Jai White and his wife, you really want to see what they can do, but the film-makers opted to not do that.
There’s a lot that I can forgive when it comes to indie movies. I get it, it’s not easy to make a movie. It’s even harder to make a good one, let alone a great one. Take Back is a film that was made during the onset of a global pandemic and you can absolutely see it, especially in the final moments of the film. I understand that the film is very low-budget, so there were limitations. I understand that. What I DON’T get is that in a genre that’s crowded with extremely similar kinds of movies, you don’t do anything to really stand out from the pack. There’s NOTHING here that hasn’t been done before and done better. Ever since Taken came out over a decade ago, there have been a lot of copy-cat movies trying to imitate that film’s success. Even Taken’s sequels failed to capture what made the first movie so good. Take Back is FAR from the worst movie I’ve ever seen. But it’s obviously nowhere near the best. It’s literally smack-dab right in the middle. There IS stuff here to like. Michael Jai White and his wife are really good. Honestly, they’re far better than what this movie deserves. Even James Russo and Priscilla Walker were watchable. But the piss-poor film-making decisions made by director Christian Sesma and first-time writer Zach Zerries tank what could’ve been a pretty decent thriller. Instead, what we get is yet another run-of-the-mill human trafficking thriller that offers nothing but the cheapest of thrills. Sorry, Mr. and Mrs. White: You can do better than this.
As a side-note, this film was distributed by Shout! Factory, a distribution company that specializes in really outstanding DVD/Blu-Ray releases like Army of Darkness, The Thing, Transformers(1986), and The Blob. Take Back is pretty much a bare-bones release, and that’s really shocking coming from a company that specializes in the digital/HD physical format. I would’ve loved to have seen at least some behind-the-scenes footage here and interviews with Michael and Gillian. Nope. All we get is a trailer, chapter selection and audio options. That’s it. For shame, Shout! Factory. For shame. My recommendation of this film is going to depend entirely on how much of a fan you are of these kinds of movies and of Michael Jai White in particular. For the most ardent of Michael Jai White fans, it’s okay. It’s even merely okay as a thriller, but you can do much better out there, even in the VOD/direct-to-video market.