Update: A new courtroom drama just hit No.6 on Netflix — here's what you need to know
Netflix's top 10 lists have a new movie ranking high up — and a slight format change you may have noticed (more on that below). First, let's talk about The Takedown, currently the No. 3-ranked entry in Netflix's daily top 10 movies list. It's a new Netflix Original film starring a familiar face from one of the best shows on Netflix: Omar Sy.
And interestingly enough, the Lupin star's new role isn't actually a new role. The Takedown is a sequel to the 2014 David Charhon film On the Other Side of the Tracks. Only this time, they've got a new director — and one who also directed three episodes of Lupin: Louis Leterrier. Yes, the new Fast X director and Omar Sy have reunited.
So, the question you're probably asking is: sure they've reunited, but does it feel so good? Let's try to break that down to see if you should watch The Takedown tonight.
What is The Takedown about?
Reckless cop Ousmane Diakhité (Sy) and institutional investigator François Monge (Laurent Lafitte) first met in On the Other Side of the Tracks, when the former was trying to connect two crimes after nearly being arrested for being the perpetrator of a car crash. The pair aren't a natural fit: Ousmane came up from the projects and François is a well-to-do Parisian investigator.
You can see the trailer for their underseen first jaunt below (and stream it for free with ads on The Roku Channel). And while this is a French-language film, The Takedown is in English, and its success here in the U.S. may be attributable to that.
So, now that Ousmane and François are acquainted, The Takedown is here to do what all great buddy cop sequels do: skip the "getting to know each other" part and cut to the fun. It's part of why Bad Boys II is so much better than Bad Boys, if you ask me.
As you'll see in the below trailer, The Takedown is full of playful banter between the pair, bickering over this and that. And when murders are on the rise, Ousmane wants to fix it all himself — without François. Unfortunately for Ousmane, you can't really say no to François — he just shows up.
Judging by the trailer, I'd say that The Takeover looks like a breezy action comedy that will give folks many a view of France. That might be all you need. It doesn't seem overly complicated, which helps make sense of The Takedown's popularity on Netflix, where content like Is It Cake? and Old Enough! thrive.
What the critics think of The Takedown
Rotten Tomatoes numbers don't tell you everything you need to know about a film, but The Takedown's 38% score is an indicator that the critics are not exactly demanding we all stop what we're doing right now to watch.
Noel Murray of the Los Angeles Times practically confirms my hunches about the film, writing "For the most part, 'The Takedown' isn’t intended to rattle cages. Veteran action director Louis Leterrier delivers exactly what audiences expect: some banter, a couple of surprise plot twists and a few thrills. He does so more than capably." On the downside, though, Murray writes "the two leads are often just along for the ride in this stunt-driven movie — but they remain good company." Which basically makes me think your experience with The Takeover will be highly based around your expectations.
David Ehrlich at indieWire also has a mixed set of notes. He calls the movie "breezy and enjoyable because of its complete lack of stakes," while also describing it as "mild fun." He also notes that Leterrier's "restless camera moves so much that it often seems determined to show as little as possible, as though trying to manufacture a degree of kinetic energy that his blocking and shot selection can’t inspire on their own."
Robert Daniels at Polygon compliments the stars by writing "Sy and Lafitte share a good give-and-go spirit, with their characters trading barbs about their respective love lives and career successes. Those jokes find further laughs as the narrative develops." HIs biggest criticism, though, is its length, writing "Somewhere in the two-hour run time is a tight, thrilling 90 minutes. But too much fat suffocates the potential," and that "The excess run time particularly makes little sense in a film with so few narrative surprises."
Analysis: Netflix's daily Top 10 lists changed
The Netflix home screen used to combine movies and TV shows in its daily top 10 list. Now, that's not the case, as we have movies and TV separated into different lists.
Personally, I liked it when Netflix combined them both, because it was more informative to rank the movies against shows in popularity. I could definitely see audiences who are looking specifically for movies or shows preferring Netflix's new way, though.
In a quasi-spoilery bit of news, Charlize Theron just shared first stills of her MCU character — and it's a bold look.
