The Take (aka Bastille Day)

This was renamed “The Take” after being released in theaters as “Bastille Day.”

I imagine the change had something to do with potential viewers being turned off by a French name, or being unaware of the historical significance of Bastille Day.

(“Independence Day” was re-titled “The Day of the Response” when it was released in France, so I guess ignorance cuts both ways.)

The movie itself isn’t half bad. Idris Elba is convincing as a “Man of Action” type. Richard Madden works as a wily pickpocket. And the pair work reasonably well as a bickering odd couple.

It’s not a great film, but there’s promise in it.

I appreciate that since this takes place in France many of the characters are French and when French people are speaking to each other they use French. They don’t default to accented English, because why would they use a second language when their first language works just fine? As such, this film has French people speaking French. And yes, that means there are quite a few subtitles. But subtitles are easy to deal with.

The villains apply a clever (and disheartening) mix of social media and xenophobia as a cover for their heist. It’s a sad commentary on the state of the world but quite a useful distraction for opportunistic thieves.

What’s the name of this movie? To this day I don’t know if the Tom Cruise-Emily Blunt sci-fi film that I own, and watch with some regularity, is titled “Live Die Repeat” or “Edge of Tomorrow.”