Customer Reviews

The Take [VHS]

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With a setting in Miami and its environs, and with Cuban Leon Ichaso directing in his normal kinetic fashion, TAKE presents a storyline concerning Dennis Delaney (Ray Sharkey), an ex-policeman who is released after four years in prison following a conviction for an aborted drug-dealer rip-off, and who attempts to reclaim a portion of his reputation while strengthening his marriage to his loyal indeed wife Sally (Lisa Hartman). Delaney, working as a security guard at a jai-alai gambling club, becomes friendly with a former Miami radio personality, Barry Shaw (Larry Manetti, who also produces here), and when Shaw is entangled in a grab at profit involving murder, heroin, and local Cuban narcotics kingpin Victor Menocal (Orestes Matacena), the former policeman finds that he is drawn into a dangerous morass. There are some clever components within the dialogue and some interesting casting, particularly that of Nelson Oramas as Delaney's former supervisor who remains faithful to their comradeship, (Oramas an actual lieutenant with Metro-Dade Police at the time of filming), with Matacena having conquered over the largely Cuban group of actors to garner the film's acting laurels, with his portrayal of a drug lord being nicely tatted with ambiguity. However, the writing is slipshod and the direction and editing often leave the players hanging, Ichaso favouring local colour and scenes of Latin dance to the detriment of what should be a tighter scenario, while Sharkey amiably saunters through the film, seemingly not terribly much involved with his admittedly hackneyed role responsibilities.