Take Cover

The script itself was not really all that bad. Scott Adkins always performs fight scenes very well, so there's that. However, this supposed professional contractor makes some of the most ridiculous decisions just to prolong the plot/movie that it's hardly relatable. Example: being pinned down for a long, long time by a sniper, supposedly unable to reach his weapon, with people getting shot the whole time, when I guess he gets tired of it and just goes for the gun... successfully, of course, then, within 3 seconds, sets up a shot and takes out the shooter in a building 1/2 a mile away. Really? There are several more "why in the heck don't you just..." scenarios like this that even a not so smart person would think of almost immediately. Like I said, the only redeeming value are the fight scenes. It's worth a watch if you can find absolutely nothing else to do.

Professional mercenary sniper Sam Lorde (Scott Adkins) finds himself in the middle of an existential crisis when he accidentally kills an innocent who throws herself in front of his intended victim. He contacts his remote boss and tells her he wants to leave the business. The boss is very disappointed but books him and his spotter Ken (Jack Parr) into a posh hotel where she'll meet them to go through formalities. However, someone else knows they are there and they are out for vengeance... Right let's say the good things first. By the end of the film, it's quite feel good and you've enjoyed a convoluted story. I very much liked the performance of Madalina Bellariu Ion who plays call girl Mona. Perhaps the best performance of the entire film.

Right, the dogs ears...the script is truly awful. The non stop pseudo-hateful banter between Sam and Ken is acutely badly written and sounds as fake as it is. Fight scenes are pretty poor. Acting is pretty poor. Verbalised emotions are half felt and not explored properly. There are so many plot holes it borders on ridiculous, and there's too much melodrama from poor actors.

Having said all of that the story while not new at all, isn't bad. If this film had great actors and a top end director it probably would have been pretty good. As it was it wasn't dire, it just wasn't very well produced or directed in so many ways. I have had a very tasty and enjoyable dinner so I am in a great mood and I give it a 5.

This was pretty poor. It looks like a made for TV movie, that wouldn't even had made it to the VHS bargain bin back in the day.

The acting is lame. The script is atrocious which attempts to play somewhere between a Ryan Reynolds 'action comedy' and an epicly poor Tarantino action thriller.

Adkins colleague is very bad indeed. The action sequences are very poor.

I'd strongly recommend that you give this a wide berth. It's one of those films where you really wish that you can't unsee it, or feel bad about the amount of time that you lost watching it. I had to turn it off at about 35 minutes just during the flat fight sequence. I wish I'd given it up sooner.

Based on the actors you know what you are getting with Scott Adkins.

But I felt this was way below average and one of his worst.

Nothing to do with the acting which is always serviceable enough but the script was so bad I think they may be trying to be a parody of these sort of movies.

You have the standard assassin type and you can fill in the blanks it is paint by numbers, but some of the choices are insane, the handlers Alice Eve voice is jarring, she does not suit a small part or play it very convincingly.

You dont need an amazing or necessarily logical script but this one is seriously below average there was no need for some of the most stupid plot points.

Scott Adkins can act well enough for these sort of parts but never has a chance.

The action sequences are so boring with no interesting parts.

I think they should not have gone with Alice Eve and spent the money on a better script and director.

For the record, I am a fan. I have an Adkins film on my list of all-best movies, a claim few other reviewers can make. But, at the same time, I have been outspoken in my view that, since his Boyka films, he has not really found an outlet to best showcase his talent. TAKE COVER 2024 changes all that. Writer Joshua Todd James has cleverly turned a hi-rise apartment into a killbox, showing once again how a limited set does not have be a disadvantage. Properly done, the suspense becomes palpable. The script cleverly pushes the "turnabout" trope -- Adkins's being targeted by a faraway shooter works well because, in the story, he himself is also a sniper. Clever! There is a lot of action and tension in Take Cover, and many of Adkins' special skills are effectively deployed for the first time in quite a while. Recommended. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))