Fuck Chad.

Mickey Rourke and Michael Jai White have become a killer duo for movies that are incredibly mediocre. This movie was directed by Christian Sesma.

Gillian White plays Zara a woman who finds herself in the public spotlight after she whoops the ass of a domestic abuser. She lives with her husband Brian played by Michael Jai White. Zara’s life is twist-turned upside down yet again when a stranger she doesn’t recognize enters her life, Nancy, played by Jessica Uberuaga. Jessica is obsessed with Zara and claims to know her secret past, and also keeps calling her Kim. What’s the deal with that? I hope we find out.

I know way too much about Mickey Rourke’s character Patrick in this movie. He owns a handful of Pomeranians that he uses to meet women and get his dick sucked. He also enjoys the saddest looking steaks I’ve ever seen and I’m fairly certain those are the cuts from Dollar General. I know. I’ve purchased and eaten them before. Patrick is obsessed with Zara for some reason. Two characters obsessed over the same seemingly normal real estate lady who also happens to be a world champion ass whooper for seemingly no reason?

I’ll bet there’s a secret!

Patrick has a whole warehouse full of doped up young women that he kidnaps seemingly just to hear them shriek when his goon goes in to beat them with a stick. James Russo plays Detective Frank Schmidt, the cop going through a divorce. Nick Vallelonga plays Demarco, an informant Frank can always go to for information. Frank is hunting down a group of sex traffickers. Probably Mickey Rourke’s guys.

I actually enjoyed Michael Jai White in this one, because he plays a normal guy just doing dad things. He’s transitioned into full suburban dad mode and I’m loving it. He’s definitely working this role a lot better than he did with The Commando. He also knows how to turn on the mean dad mode when he needs to. White will take pretty much any script that comes his way, but he does feel like he actually cares about working with what he’s got. Unfortunately what he’s got is usually garbage.

The first half of the film is a series of Zara being attacked and then going sicko mode and beating the absolute shit out of her attackers. It’s pretty obvious where this is going once you get to the halfway mark, but the film is pretty good overall. The camera shots aren’t flat, the actors seem to actually care about their roles. Asif Akbar could learn a lesson in how to make a White/Rourke film that isn’t dog ass from this movie.

Mickey Rourke doesn’t have the mouth control to spit on someone anymore, nor does he seem capable of putting on a pair of sunglasses. It’s been obvious for years that Mickey shows up on set, probably drunk, and just waffles through his lines. I highly believe he just wears on the film whatever he showed up in, and question if he ever learned the script and just ad-libs because Rourke’s name doesn’t have much pull these days, but it also doesn’t have zero pull these days. I miss the days of Sin City Mickey Rourke.

The best I can say about Take Back is that it is watchable, the worst thing I can say about Take Back is that it is exactly the same thriller about a couple whose child is abducted by sex traffickers as the last two hundred thousand movies of the type. But hey, this is writer Zach Zerries first film. Zach Zerries? You’ve got to get a better stage name, my dude. It’s too bad this film came before The Commando, because it’s depressing knowing Rourke only continues downhill from here.

On the other hand, Gillian White is a total badass. I can see why Michael Jai White married her in real life. The shootout at the end is complete crap.

Rating: C-