The Takeover

Entertaining little Dutch thriller which doesn't outlast it's welcome. Holly Mae Brood plays Mel, a computer hacker who annoys the wrong people. She's framed for a murder she didn't commit and the only person who can help her is Buddy (Frank Lammers). It's all about facial recognition and what can happen when the technology gets in the wrong hands. Mel and her boyfriend Thomas (Geza Weisz) have to get the information that will prove her innocence to the police. She's chased by the murderous Rogers (Lawrence Sheldon) but gets away before the police capture him. It all ends in a runaway driverless bus and Mel and Thomas save the day before the bus crashes. Enjoyable little film, been done before but likeable all the same.

I've tried so hard lately to find good movies on Netflix or Hulu and most stuff I've seen is just crap, especially nearly all action movies. For The Takeover I thought the plot and story were good, the pace was good, and it stayed interesting from beginning to end. The acting was fine and did not distract. This was an entertaining movie with a great central actress.

The criticisms I'm skimming through are uninteresting to me. I don't care about the authenticity of "the hacking scenes." I was expecting something cringe-worthy but it never came.

It's not winning any Oscars but I found this interesting and entertaining for what it is. As long as you don't come in expecting Mad Max Fury Road you can have a nice 85 minutes. I liked it.

Since it was a Dutch movie newly released on Netflix we were curious to see this movie. But it turned out to be disappointing. The storyline is straight out of fairytale and has nothing to do with reality and therefore makes it totally unbelievable. Acting is mediocre at best and there is a lot of running and saying "f#@k" all the time.

It makes the movie one dimensional and more like a (bad) cartoon.

Sadly this movie fits in a long row of Netflix productions we're quantity trumps quality.

To end with a positive note: the city of Rotterdam gets a great promotion with all its highlights, so if this movie inspires you with inspiration to vist this citty something good came out of this production.

Good lord is this bad. The acting is painfully forced, the hacking scenes are not even remotely realistic. Like a scrolling terminal that is too quick to read, and the guy is hammering away at a keyboard. I'M HaCKinG!! Ugh so bad.

At one point the protagonist say's she is going to have dinner with "a guy" and her lady friend (Who we never see again) ask's "is it a creep?". The protagonist then shows a mere photo of the guy at which point the lady friend says: "Oh, so not a creep" It is suggested that because the guy is cute, he's not a creep. Good lord...

The tropes, the cliches, It's all just painful to watch. I did it, so you do not have to. Skip this one.

This Dutch cyber-thriller is centred on Mel Bandison; an ethical hacker who has been employed to check the software on a new driverless bus system. She discovers it has been compromised and her work to correct this upsets some very dangerous people. Soon she has been framed for a murder and is on the run from both the police and criminals. If she is to clear her name and find safety she will have to work with other hackers to find the evidence that proves she was framed.

If you've seen just about any other movie featuring hackers you'll spot plenty of genre clichés here. Whether or not you can enjoy the film depends on whether you can suspend your disbelief and ignore the more far-fetched moments for ninety minutes or not. I enjoyed much of the film and thought the tension ramped up nicely towards the end. There isn't much violence and if it weren't for the excessive swearing this would not be unsuitable for younger viewers. The acting is decent enough; Holly Mae Brood is solid in the lead role. Overall I'd say this is far from a must see but it passes the time well enough if you are nostalgic for the hacker films of the '90s.

These comments are based on watching the film in Dutch with English subtitles.