movie review the takeover

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The takeover.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 0 Reviews
• Kids Say 0 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Some gun violence, strong language in hacker thriller.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Takeover is a Dutch thriller about an ethical hacker, Mel, who stumbles into an international crime conspiracy. She's quickly framed for murder and hunted by police and criminals who want her dead. There's a fair amount of gun violence, fighting, and people being chased. Main…

Why Age 15+?

Some gun violence, blood, and fighting. People get shot a fair amount, and bodie

Frequent strong language includes: all variations of "f--k," "s--t," "a--hole,"

Any Positive Content?

The hero is Dutch, White, and a woman. The main cast is Dutch and White. A few p

Protect your friends and yourself when being hunted by an international crime or

Mel is an ethical hacker and tries to do good with her skills. Her mentor, Buddy

Violence & Scariness

Some gun violence, blood, and fighting. People get shot a fair amount, and bodies often fly through the air. A few times, people get shot in the head, and once, graphically, as the man's head snaps back when shot. A camera video of a man getting shot in the head is shown many times, but the film is grainy. Some corpses are shown with bullet holes in them. There is police violence, fist fights, and people get kicked, thrown, hit, and hurt. Main characters are under constant threat, danger, and are chased often, on foot, in cars, etc. Men with guns break into a woman's apartment. Men threaten to kill people. A runaway bus crashes into many cars, and people get hurt.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent strong language includes: all variations of "f--k," "s--t," "a--hole," "bitch," "damn," "Jesus," and the middle finger.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Diverse Representations

The hero is Dutch, White, and a woman. The main cast is Dutch and White. A few people of color round out the supporting cast.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Positive Messages

Protect your friends and yourself when being hunted by an international crime organization. Ethically hack criminals.

Positive Role Models

Mel is an ethical hacker and tries to do good with her skills. Her mentor, Buddy, is also a decent person, even if he kept lots of money that was supposed to go to victims of crime. Thomas is also a good guy, just trying to help.

Parents need to know that The Takeover is a Dutch thriller about an ethical hacker, Mel, who stumbles into an international crime conspiracy. She's quickly framed for murder and hunted by police and criminals who want her dead. There's a fair amount of gun violence, fighting, and people being chased. Main characters are constantly under threat. A few times, people get shot in the head, and once, graphically, as the man's head snaps back when shot. A camera video of a man getting shot in the head is shown many times, but the film is grainy. Some corpses are shown with bullet holes in them. There's a lot of strong language, which includes: "f--k," "s--t," "a--hole," "bitch," "damn," "Jesus," and the middle finger. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say

There aren't any parent reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.

What's the Story?

In THE TAKEOVER, an ethical hacker (Holly Mae Brood) uncovers an international crime conspiracy. She is soon framed for murder and hunted by dangerous criminals and the police. Will she clear her name and uncover the conspiracy?

Is It Any Good?

There's a lot to like in this quick, pacey, thriller. But The Takeover is also quite shallow and a movie that doesn't want the audience thinking that much. Illogical inconsistencies bring down the believability of a lot of what happens, especially the denouement where the film literally turns into Speed (the Keanu Reeves classic). Not very much is explained, either, regarding the actual conspiracy, how "the Chinese government" is exactly behind all this, or why Interpol isn't interested. Thus, the movie doesn't want a thinking audience, but nor is the movie made for the oppositely inclined. Surface-level thriller is written large across the board, so to speak.

Fittingly, the characters seem to be drawn thinly, with each person's role and purpose clearly delineated. No character ever surprises or does something unexpected, so they become simple functions of moving the story along. This is a little limiting, given that the film could've had more personality if the characters had more personality. Yet, this isn't the fault of Holly Mae Brood's performance as Mel. She does what she can with a very restricting script and thin character. But the story does move along quickly.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about violence in thrillers. Did the violence in The Takeover make it more exciting? Why or why not?

Would you have gone to the police like Thomas wanted to? Why or why not?

Do you think the film depicted hacking culture well, accurately, or convincingly? What are some examples you can point to that would support your answer?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : November 1, 2022
• Cast : Holly Mae Brood , Geza Weisz , Frank Lammers , Susan Radder
• Director : Annemarie van de Mond
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Thriller
• Run time : 87 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : February 17, 2023

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The Takeover ending explained – how does Mel prove her innocence?

We discuss the ending of the Netflix film The Takeover (2022), which will contain major spoilers.

The Takeover is a safe action thriller on Netflix that uses classic tropes and doesn’t offer much excitement or intrigue but makes for an easy watch.

The film begins with a man driving to an army base, listening to classical music. He looks like a geeky dad, and as soon as he enters, he sets to check out the system errors they’re experiencing. He’s a hacker. All units start to shut down, and as he types furiously, he discovers where the hack is coming from. To everyone’s surprise, it’s local. They find that a sixteen-year-old hacker, Mel ( Holly Mae Brood ), was hacking into the military operating system just to prevent jet noise to help the local seals. Buddy, clearly impressed, makes a deal that if she tells him how she did this, he will tell her how he found her. 

Jump forward to ten years later, while in her day job, Mel spots a random bug inside a facial recognition-driven bus and immediately blocks it with a trojan horse . Hacking into a serious database, Mel has crossed the wrong people, who then release a fake video that “shows” her murdering someone, framing her, and putting the police on her trail. Mel is now on a mission to hide from the police and clear her name. 

The film follows her doing all it takes to prove her innocence, despite the consequences. Mel goes into hiding with the guy she had the bad blind date with, Thomas. As he’s not a hacker, and with this great fake, Mel needs all the help she can get. This leads her online friends to say she needs Buddy to help clear her name. Mel refuses to contact him. We learn this is because she has previously turned him in to the police, so he is also a wanted man too. 

On the run, Buddy finds Mel, and all three now try to decipher who is blackmailing her. They discover that Mel hacked the Chinese government, and they do not want anything Mel discovered to come to light as it will cause international drama. They’re trying to ruin Mel’s reputation so no one would believe what she said/found. 

Eventually, the bad British villain Rogers kills Buddy, and Mel’s lover-boy is captured by the police. Mel flees to go back and re-enter and re-hack the company she did at the beginning to find the evidence to exploit them to prove her innocence. While hacking, she is found by Rogers, who points a gun to her head. In true maverick style, she manages to escape and run away. 

Only towards the end do we have a small fight before Mel is captured . Rogers begins to shoot at the computers in the server room, causing the servers to crash and the driverless buses on the streets to malfunction, putting people’s lives at risk. 

Mel takes the police to prove her innocence and then attempts to hack into the bus to stop it from running. Thomas becomes the action hero we needed and wanted in this film as he steals Buddy’s car and hijacks the bus to help slow it down and stop it before it reaches the river. Together they manage to stop the bus and save everyone. 

The final scene sees Mel working on her laptop, getting a message from Buddy, which is automated if he’s not online for three days which means he’s probably dead. Buddy is telling her he’s proud of her and wants her to change the world. Mel and Thomas sit by the river. Mel puts her arm around him, then challenges him to three more laps. They run off camera and we cut to the credits. 

This film does have a strong female protagonist, who begins the film being independent and driven, and even when helped by other male characters in proving her innocence, the character doesn’t lose these qualities. Mel is helped by a man who she once outsmarted and then by a dumb guy she ran out on, on their first date. This is smart, although, in the end, it doesn’t feel as if her character learned or developed into anything; her story arc was quite poor. 

The ending of The Takeover has the drama and action we needed from the start, and as well as saving herself, Mel is able to save the lives of innocent victims, making her a true, nerdy hero. After this, she is able to go back to her life, trying to make the world a better place by hacking. This film does make hacking seem more positive and something that can have a good influence on the world, which is not the way in which we’ve viewed and been shown hackers in the past. 

The whole film is a cat-and-mouse chase, the focus being on the running rather than the hacking itself. For an action-thriller, it lacked a lot of intrigue and excitement, as when you’re running, you’re not confronting or fighting. The ending is a happy one, with Mel clearing her name and making a new friend. 

What did you think of the ending of the Netflix film The Takeover (2022) ? Comment below.

Article by Romey Norton

Romey Norton joined Ready Steady Cut in June 2021 as a Film and TV writer, and since then, she has published over 400 articles for the website. With a Master of Arts Degree from the University of Leeds in 2017 and acting experience on screen, Romey uses her Film and TV knowledge to bring informative and detailed content for online publications and podcasting.

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The Takeover

Where to watch.

Rent The Takeover on Prime Video, or buy it on Prime Video.

Cast & Crew

Trent Harris

Samantha Wesley Schanz

Stephanie O'Brien

Dojo Turnbull

General James O'Brien

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The takeover.

Directed by Annemarie van de Mond

Self-proclaimed ethical hacker Mel Bandison's life is turned upside down when she stops a data breach on a high-tech self-driving bus that also happens to shut down an international criminal network. She then becomes a target and is framed with a deepfake video that “shows” that she murders someone.

Holly Mae Brood Géza Weisz Susan Radder Frank Lammers Noortje Herlaar Walid Benmbarek Lawrence Sheldon Jenny Hsia Faye Kimmijser Mike Wijdenbosch Carly Wijs Thomas Dudkiewicz Kyra Isako Smith Burt Rutteman Bas Heerkens Geoffrey Breton Kok-Hwa Lie Jeremiah Fleming

Director Director

Annemarie van de Mond

Producers Producers

Annemieke van Vliet Femke Bennink Jerrold Smit

Writers Writers

Tijs van Marle Hans Erik Kraan

Casting Casting

Editor editor, cinematography cinematography.

Willem Helwig

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Jocelyn Herrewijn Yves Van de Vyver

Lighting Lighting

Erwin Roodhart Thomas Kool

Camera Operators Camera Operators

Thomas Bultstra Rolf Dekens Sjoerd Carton Erwin Roodhart Max Maloney

Production Design Production Design

Rosie Stapel

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Lorien Mouyal

Special Effects Special Effects

Maxim Vincent Rick Wiessenhaan Maxim Bos Nils Verstraete Roland Goddijn Harry Wiesenhaan

Stunts Stunts

Rafik Bobo Saskia Neville Ronnie Kreeft Lutz Schleisner Brian van de Vooren Christian Petersson Ron Sleeswijk Nicolas de Pruyssenaere

Composer Composer

Merlijn Snitker

Sound Sound

Regard Ibrahim Jacques Vleeshouwers Richard Wilder

Costume Design Costume Design

Heleen Heintjes

Makeup Makeup

Leendert van Nimwegen Scarlett Kraidy

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Michiel van Oostveen

Fiction Valley

Releases by Date

01 nov 2022, releases by country.

• Digital 12 Netflix
• Digital Netflix
• Digital R18+
• Digital 16 Netflix
• Digital NC16 Netflix
• Digital 15 Netflix

87 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Comicbookfan ★

An average forgettable film action film involving hacking. The story is weak and this isnt exciting or interesting enough to work as an action film.

Review by PosNRG ★★

Making a film about hackers and hacking requires knowledge of computers, coding and computer systems. That is exactly not the case with The Takeover.

If hacking was that simple the whole world would be hacked by now. I know it's just a film and most films aren't realistic, but come on ...., this film doesn't even try to be believable; too many plot holes, unanswered questions and a messy storyline. Other than the bad script, the acting is not good except for Frank Lammers, he is the only one who did a decent job and he should have been given a bigger role. Are there any positives? Well, the fight scene was okay, but it lasted less than a minute.

Review by Joel Hilke ★★ 2

Interest in saying anything about this blandly below average Netflix technothriller is quite low. When they put so little effort into their '90s internet paranoia throwback thriller, I barely want to lift a handful of fingers to half-heartedly rip into it.

But we'll go through the motions. The Takeover is a particularly inaccurate title (spoiler alert: nothing gets taken over) for a new thriller out of the Netherlands. In it, a hacker hacks the wrong hackers and hacking hacking hacking happens. Hacking! It's what's for dinner. Soon the police and assassins (who are probably hackers) are trying to hack her. Har. Comedy.

The film started with a whiff of the '90s movie Hackers which is both a chortle-worthy positive and…

Review by joshrowley ★★ 2

Brisk; engaging; lean; short; slight; underdeveloped; well-acted; well-cast.

Review by 「𝙑𝙞𝙘𝙠」 ★½

The synopsis was giving AI Speed  but “she’s nothing like that, she’s nothing of the sort” and I was hella bored.

Review by Heather Santrous ★★

I wasn't sure what I wanted to watch on Netflix streaming but I ended up watching this one just because it is the shortest movie I have on my watchlist there. I don't really want to get into a two-hour movie on a workday right now so I've been putting those off. The story has to do with a hacker who has stopped another hack, but she doesn't realize what she has done. By stopping the hack, Mel has stepped into something much bigger, and now she is a target. The police are after her for a murder she didn't commit and the people behind the hack she stopped are after her so they can go back to what they…

Review by 🇵🇱 Steve G 🐝 ★★

The 2022 Catchup Project

Saw it on Netflix. Had an hour and a half to fill. This is how they get you for those clicks.

An entirely perfunctory hacker thriller with no surprises, excitement or anything of note whatsoever. There's genuinely nothing more than can be said about this movie.

Review by DonnieDarko666 ★★★

Completely unrealistic throwback to 90's hacker movies.

But I have to admit that I had fun watching the film, it was short, fast paced and entertaining with a good looking and acting female lead. As a bonus it also had Frank Lammers.

If you can manage turning your brains off for 90 minutes you might also have a good time.

Review by Cameron Menefee ★ 3

What a nothing movie. Terrible acting, blends visuals, boring cinematography, generic forgettable action, a very clichéd predictable plot, etc. Only good thing about this boring thriller is the music score which I thought isn’t too bad, could work in a much better movie though. And it is at least just an hour and 27 minutes despite still feeling like it’s 2-3 times as long due to the boring nature of the movie. Just another day another garbage Netflix movie that most will forget about the next day. Skip it.

Review by Maaike Geelen ★½ 1

AliExpres Enemy of the State meets Speed

Review by Sharon ★★

*hacker voice* i’m in

Review by Ricardo ★★½

This wasn’t really good but I did enjoy this way more than I should.

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The Takeover film review: Fastpaced hacker thriller can’t avoid genre cliches

If you dig action thriller stereotypes served with a twist of hacker suspense drama, the film is good enough for a one-time watch.

Cast: Holly Mae Brood, Frank Lammers, Geza Weisz, Susan Radder, Walid Benmbarek, Noortje Herlaar, Lawrence Sheldon

Director: Annemarie van de Mond

Language: Dutch with Hindi and English audio options

Hacking, facial scan abuse and data theft mingle with old-school murder and blackmail in Annemarie van de Mond’s Dutch thriller, which unfolds as an uncomplicated potboiler despite its twisted undercurrent pertaining to cyber intrusion of privacy. The Takeover spins a story of suspense that would mostly seem familiar, though the film is fast-paced enough to keep you engrossed all along. You spot influences as varied as Eagle Eye , Enemy Of The State , The Net , Swordfish and — in its breakneck finale — a busload of stunts that might seem like a cyber-age update to the Keanu Reeves -starrer Speed . The overall mood is almost a trifling one, as if underlined by the pop electronica beats that backdrop the early title scenes.

The plot centres on ethical hacker Mel Bandison (Holly Mae Brood), who works with a small like-minded group that tracks criminal hackers and then turns them over to the cops. The leader of the group is Buddy (Frank Lammers). Mel’s job requires her to hack into systems, run security checks, deal with delicate data and retrieve stolen data for clients. Action in her story starts soon enough when a couple of strangers break into her home one night, obviously intending to kill her.

Mel escapes and goes to the police station seeking protection, but is in for a shock. It seems like she is wanted by the police and she soon realises why. Horrified, she finds herself staring at a news TV footage that shows her killing a man. Chased by dangerous people out to kill her and wanted by cops for a murder she never committed, Mel is now on the run. She realises she must clear her name but time is not on her side.

The whys and wherefores of Mel’s plight, of course, have to do with her job as a hacker, and the basic challenge for screenwriters setting up a narrative around a technical subject as hacking is to keep the storyline lucid enough for the lay viewer to grasp and yet avoid getting too dumb about it. The film’s writers Hans Erik Kraan and Tijs van Marle try finding a solution by introducing a character that is far removed from the world of hacking, and throwing him into the thick of action. So, Geza Weisz as Thomas Deen, Mel’s awkward date from the night before, gets dragged into her misadventure. Thomas’ significance as a sidekick in the screenplay is mainly restricted to wailing for explanation on the technical jargon that Mel and her pals exchange. In turn, these technical aspects are explained for the benefit of the audience, through dialogues of the hacker ‘experts’ on screen.

The narrative gets Mel on the run quite early, within less than half an hour. For a film with a tight runtime of 87 minutes, you would think the actual story, meant to unfold over the final hour, would be packed with spectacular action and twists. It isn’t, and that is the film’s big shortcoming.

Interestingly, the story, which banks on the topic of cyber privacy and personal data theft, manages to set up a Chinese connection in the villainy that it sets up. We understand early on that Mel has inadvertently messed with some very powerful people while trying to execute a hack job to protect one of her clients. A Trojan Horse she introduced to safeguard her client’s interest affected a multinational firm named Xiao Ming, among others. The firm uses facial scan technology to collect personal data from its global consumer base and then passes on the same to the Chinese government. This particular aspect of the script could have led to a cracker of a thriller. Instead, the narrative merely uses it as a plot pusher, to line up the requisite quota of villains in Mel’s story.

Director Annemarie van de Mond’s execution is quite basic: It is about raising a few problems for the protagonist in the first half and then tying up the loose ends in the second. Although the narrative maintains pace all through, the film could have done with a lot more smart twists. Neither the storytelling nor the directorial treatment of the film reveals ambition to push the generic envelope. The Takeover has it all, from choreographed stunts to FX-loaded chases. Yet, it is all too formulaic and reminiscent of a countless such sequences seen on screen before. If the film was meant to be a generic tribute, it doesn’t fulfil the criterion simply because it lacks in imagination. Technically, the film is salvaged by Willem Helwig’s cinematography, which renders an authentic vibe to the action scenes, and Fatih Tura’s crisp editing that ensures there are no boring spells all through the runtime.

To set up drama of convenience, the makers primarily bank on the cliche that every time Mel is being chased by someone she will outrun the villain/s against all odds. The film moves on a linear track that solely focuses on the suspense quotient, so despite its feel-good vibes there is little room for humour (“In movies, the hackers they show are thinner and younger,” Thomas tells Mel, upon seeing the chubby Buddy in the odd comic scene). Neither is there much scope for romance, unless you count Mel and Thomas discussing codes amidst psychedelic lights. It is a screenplay that doesn’t offer challenging roles to its cast, though Holly Mae Brood as Mel exudes bankable screen presence. Brood tends to overdo herself in the odd scene of melodrama but she sure strikes a neat kick in the action sequences.

The Takeover is worth your time if the hacker-verse intrigues you. The film is engaging in the way it sets up action drama around the concept. A runtime of 87 minutes was never enough to delve deep into the cyber mystery the storyline sets out to explore, and the makers have been practical enough to restrict the drama to formulaic physical action of an on-the-run caper. If you dig action thriller stereotypes served with a twist of hacker suspense drama, the film is good enough for a one-time watch.

Rating: * * & 1/2 (two and a half stars out of five)

Vinayak Chakravorty is a critic, columnist, and film journalist based in Delhi-NCR.

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The new Netflix film The Takeover revolves around a software hacker Mel Bandison (Holly Mae Brood), who lands herself into deep trouble after blocking the operations of a criminal group. The film is directed by Annemarie van de Mond and is written by Hans Erik Kraan and Tijs van Marle. Primarily, the flick is available in the Dutch language, with English subtitles.

The cast of the film includes Holly Mae Brood as the professional hacker, Géza Weisz as Thomas, Frank Lammers as Buddy, Noortje Herlaar, Lawrence Sheldon, Walid Benmbarek and Susan Radder. Moreover, it has a running time of one hour and twenty-eight minutes.

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-The Takeover Review Does Not Contain Spoilers-

The film starts with a 16-year-old Mel Bandison hacking into the military operating system just to prevent a jet noise. The young hacker gets caught red-handed by Buddy, another professional techie, who spots the exceptional coding genius inside her. Years later, Mel becomes a seasoned online Robin Hood, who exposes corrupt individuals and organizations while transferring the money to their original source.

One day during her daytime job, she spots a random bug inside a facial recognization driven bus and immediately blocks it with a trojan horse. She leaves for a date with a guy named Thomas, having literally no idea about the impact of her actions.

Eventually, the bad guys behind the bug, make it their life purpose to kill and defame Mel for the rest of her life. Thereby forcing the hacker to race against time and expose the real elements behind the whole operation. Now, Will Mel be successful in her mission? Well, the answer is pretty obvious if you have watched enough genre movies like this.

At first, the plot of this hacker-on-the-run movie sounds like your average coding thriller, with the usual trajectory of the events. But if you look deeper, you will find that it is absolutely the case. There is a hacker with exceptional skills, a father-like figure whose fate is already sealed, and a guy who has no clue about the involvement whatsoever.

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The film is conventional right from the start and fails to add an element of intrigue. It performs all the typical genre pieces and succumbs to weak execution. Moreover, the film predominantly falls under the action-adventure category, rather than a hacking-based feature.

In fact, the parts where the hacking takes place are artificial and significantly dumbed down. Which makes the USP pointer another random segment of the flick. The only focus seems to be directed towards the thrilling chase and the dramatic climax.

However, the role of Buddy (played by Frank Lammers) is the only light in this otherwise dull show. His character, no matter how cliche, works towards the redemption arc and is mostly successful at it.

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The Takeover Final Thoughts

The film is a lacklustre show throughout its short runtime and does not generate any excitement. It is another rendition from the genre, with no time for original innovation. All in all, The Takeover falls well behind the bar of an intriguing movie.

You can stream the film on Netflix. Let us know your thoughts about the action-adventure film in the comment section below.

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Meet The Takeover Cast: who's who in the Netflix thriller

Meet the major players who make up The Takeover cast.

Here's a rundown of the stars that feature in The Takeover cast.

The Takeover is a Dutch action-thriller from Annemarie van de Mond that's just dropped onto Netflix . The film follows Mel Bandison, an ethical hacker who lands herself in hot water after tackling a data breach for a high-tech, self-driving bus.

In defusing the breach, Mel unintentionally closes down an international crime network; her life is soon flipped upside down as she ends up being framed for a murder that she didn't commit. From there, she goes on the run and seeks out some close friends as she tries to prove her innocence. 

Read on to find out who the major players in The Takeover cast are, as well as where you might know them from.

Who's who in The Takeover cast: Holly Mae Brood as Mel Bandison

Dutch actress Holly Mae Brood stars as Mel, the hacker at the center of The Takeover 's problems after shutting down the criminal network.

Where else have you seen Holly Mae Brood? Aside from The Takeover, Holly Mae Brood has appeared in Foodies, Life As It Should Be, Vicious, Dare, and the Dutch soap opera, Goede tijden, slechte tijden. She's also one of the presenters for the Flemish version of Love Island .

Géza Weisz as Thomas Deen

Géza Weisz plays Thomas Deen, a man Mel went on a date with. When the criminal organization comes after her, she seeks him out and tries to hide at his place, before the pair end up going on the run together. 

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Where else have you seen Géza Weisz? Weisz is a casting director and actor; he's had roles in All in Kitchen, Bluf, Bagels & bubbles, Help! I've Shrunk the Family, The East and Life Is Wonderful. 

Frank Lammers as Buddy Benschot

Frank Lammers features as Mel's former mentor, Buddy. She seeks him out when she starts trying to track down the criminals who are out to frame her.

Where else have you seen Frank Lammers? Lammers has had roles in Undercover, H4Z4RD, D-Railed, Black Book, Grenslanders, Amsterdam Undercover and Ferry. 

Noortje Herlaar as Linde van Erp

In The Takeover, Noortke Herlaar plays Linde van Erp, the CEO of the company behind the self-driving bus that Mel inspects at the start of the film.

Where else have you seen Noortje Herlaar? Noortje has appeared in both The Hitman's Bodyguard and the sequel, The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, as well as LOIS, Modern Love Amsterdam, Zuidas, The Body Collector, Just Say Yes and Romy's Salon . 

Lawrence Sheldon as Rogers

English actor Lawrence Sheldon plays Rogers, the villain of the piece. He works for the criminal organization that Mel interrupts, and orchestrates her framing in exchange to try and get her to fix the network's disruption.

Who else stars in The Takeover? 

The Takeover also stars Susan Radder and Walid Benmbarek as two of the officers who are tasked with Mel's case and tracking her down.  There's also  Kok-Hwa Lie as Suk Mo Chen, Carly Wijs as Richelle, Thomas Dudkiewicz as Jay, and Kyra Smith as Yu-Jin.

The Takeover is available to stream exclusively on Netflix. For more to enjoy on the streaming service, check out our guides to what's new on Netflix this month and the best Netflix series you can stream right now.

Martin was a Staff Writer with WhatToWatch.com, where he produced a variety of articles focused on the latest and greatest films and TV shows. Now he works for our sister site Tom's Guide in the same role.

Some of his favorite shows are What We Do In The Shadows , Bridgerton , Gangs of London , The Witcher , Doctor Who , and Ghosts . When he’s not watching TV or at the movies, Martin’s probably still in front of a screen playing the latest video games, reading, or watching the NFL.

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The Takeover

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• November 1, 2022 (India)
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• "With a good pace and acting, this action-thriller film still falls flat, failing to create any serious intrigue or excitement (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"  Romey Norton : Ready Steady Cut
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‘The Takeover’ (2022) – Netflix Movie – Review: An Action-Thriller for a Rainy Afternoon

Takeover is a Netflix action thriller movie directed by Annemarie van de Mond , starring Holly Brood .

A cat and mouse chase film.

Mel Bandison is a white-hat hacker who, after a good deed, gets into trouble because, collaterally, she causes the closure of an entire criminal organization.

Movie Review

This little number is an action thriller where there is a lot of running around town, in this case it is Rotterdam, as the protagonist is being chased by the gangsters whose system she has hacked into. Again, although the premise is different, we have a Run Lola Run scenario, as we did with Run Sweetheart Run . The storyline is straightforward, and the production is acceptable. With the appropriate fast tempo for an action thriller it is one scene after another of the cat and mouse chase. It might not be novel, but it has a strong protagonist that is well performed by Holly Mae Brood . All in all the performances of the cast is good. As for the cinematography it is not outstanding, with a plain photography, which does have an advantage, though, of giving it a more realistic quality. If you seek a thriller structured in a more classic narrative format, ‘The Takeover’ might be a movie you will want to watch.

Our Opinion

Despite it not being a highly sophisticated production it has the inherent entertainment value of an action thriller, which will probably be to the liking of some audience members. The storyline is not novel, but it counts on a strong protagonist.

Release Date

November 1, 2022

Where to Watch ‘The Takeover’

Lawrence Sheldon / Rogers

Jenny Hsia / Teamlid

Faye Kimmijser / Young Mel

Mike Wijdenbosch / Robin

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I will give one out of ten. I wasted my time unbelievable undoable unpractical scenarios. Stupid acting especially by Holly.

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