Given that Netflix boasts a subscriber base of over 200 million, any relatively splashy new title that arrives on a Friday is almost guaranteed to spent at least a couple of days at the summit of the most-watched charts. True to form, French action comedy The Takedown has largely been greeted with a shrug, but it’s nonetheless managed to make an instant impact.
As per FlixPatrol, the platform’s latest foreign-language hit has debuted as a Top 10 entry in 66 countries worldwide, arriving in the number one spot in 23 of them. That’s not a bad return for a formulaic genre flick that only holds a 40% Rotten Tomatoes score, and has already gotten some fans worried at the prospect of director Louis Leterrier taking over at the helm of Fast X in the wake of Justin Lin’s departure.
Star Omar Sy is no stranger to Netflix success having headlined one of the streamer’s most popular original shows of all-time in Lupin, and he delivers a reliably charming turn as one half of the odd couple central duo, even if he can’t elevate the material to anywhere above average.
As you’ve no doubt seen a thousand times before, Sy’s Ousmane Diakhité and Laurent Lafitte’s François Monge are two cops with very different personalities and preferred methods of law enforcement, who find themselves unwillingly thrown together to investigate a routine drug deal that turns out to have far-reaching implications that place the pair in the throes of danger.
Originality isn’t exactly the order of the day, but The Takedown has enough about it to distract Netflix viewers for a couple of hours at the weekend.
Published: May 7, 2022 12:04 pm