Ben Affleck is back in the actors seat with a new movie, entitled The Town. The movie topped the box office it’s debut week with a decent $23.8 million. If you were a fan of Ben Affleck’s directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone you will most likely be impressed with this movie.
Affleck plays Doug Mac- Ray, a man who has been involved in a long life of crime. However, he longs to turn his life around after finding Claire Keesey, played by the talented Rebecca Hall, whom he finds during a robbery at a local Boston bank. Things get heated when FBI agent Adam Frawley, played by Mad Men‘s Jon Hamm, is on to MacRay and his gang. This group of robbers includes Jeremy Renner who plays MacRay’s hotheaded best friend, Jem, and Jem’s drug addicted sister Krista, played by Blake Lively.
The movie is based on a novel by Chuck Hogan entitled Prince of Thieves. Unfamiliar with the story of the book, the film definitely had me hanging on the edge of my seat. There were many scenes that I was not expecting, but I will not give them away.
I also highly enjoyed this movie for Affleck alone. Not only is his directing impressive, his acting is by far the best in the movie. I felt that his acting was far superior to that of famed actors Hamm and Renner. Affleck has come so far way in his career and I can completely say, “I really believed him.” It wasn’t that Renner and Hamm were absolutely dreadful, there were just moments where I either felt that they did too much or I became too bored with their character.
One of my biggest compliments to this movie is how successfully they mixed different genres in one movie. If you are an action fan, there’s a part for that. If you’re a drama fan, there’s a part for that. They even had plenty of romance and comedy mixed in.
The storyline of Claire Keesey and Doug MacRay really made you feel for the characters and it definitely made the movie more sentimental, enough to interest a woman. Some of my favorite scenes include Jem, Doug or Agent Frawley’s one-liners. There are not any newspaper-appropriate examples, but you will understand what I mean if you see the movie.
One of the things that make this movie unlike any other cop drama is the action. I cannot remember the last time I actually saw explosion scenes or really awesome shootouts in a movie with an actually decent story line. If you do see The Town, do not go to the bathroom during the huge car chase scene in the middle of the movie.
However, do not jump out of your seat to see this movie just yet. What I did not like about The Town was that it felt like it was trying to be like The Departed and other Boston drama films before it, but it just did not measure up.
One of my biggest pet peeves when seeing films is accents done incorrectly. I have seen it many times; the big Hollywood movie actor tries way too hard to fit an accent. Although he is from Boston, Affleck’s accent seems a little too heavy, and in turn so do Renner’s and Lively’s. To top it all off, the ending falls a little flat.
I enjoyed The Town, but if you’re looking for a good Scorsese film, I’d suggest waiting. However, if you go see ir simply for Affleck’s acting, I promise you will not be disappointed.
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