The Town

Okay so one night you are bored and you are wondering what you can do to pass the time.  I highly recommend going to your local theater and seeing "The Town".  Now I know what you are thinking isn't this movie starring, co-writer and directed by Ben Affleck who has been very hit or miss with me personally.  What he has created is one of my favorite movies this year topped only by "Inception".

The movie is very similar in tone and mood to "Heat" which still to this day has the best gun shootout scene ever filmed (best fifteen minutes of pure movie watching pleasure).  This is the second movie directed by Ben Affleck after 2007's critically acclaimed "Gone Baby Gone" (thank you IMDB.com for that exact information).  This time we have the film taking place in Affleck's home town of Boston.  Now Ben Affleck has had a wild ride when it comes to movies.  He has acted in some excellent ones like "Good Will Hunting", vastly underrated ones like "Dogma" comes to mind, average to decent like "Armageddon", and just awful ones as the infamous "Gigli".

Normally I can’t stand Ben Affleck as I think he has one range of acting but in this movie this one range works as a strength.  He plays a hardnosed tough Boston guy who loves the Red Sox and drinking beer.  In the movie his job between bank robberies has him working at a sand/rock business oddly enough something very similar to his character in “Good Will Hunting”  which I think is very close to what Ben is like in real life so obviously he is in his element here.  Ben really brings his "A" to the party and it shows in all the subtle ways you wouldn't expect to come from him.  This is really highlighted by the scene when he goes to visit his father in prison (foreshadowing the fact they will never see each other again).  Now the movie didn't need this to advance the plot but it helps humanize the characters and really make you sad to know how it may possibly end.  This character development is rarely done in most bank robbing movies (outside Heat of course, if you can't tell I love that movie as well).

However the real star of the movie outside the fantastic car chase scenes (What bank robbery movie doesn’t have car chase scene) and an amazing shootout with the cops at Fenway Park is Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck’s character) best friend James Coughlin played by Jeremy Renner.  I love villains and I can tell you he was one of the best rounded crazy villain (Heath Ledger in Joker tops it but how can you beat perfection) in a movie in quite some time.  He just does a terrific job and I would recommend you see the movie just on his performance.

I can’t recommend this movie enough unless of course you haven’t seen “Inception” than go see “Inception” first followed very closely by “The Town”.

Please let me know whether you agree and/or just comment on my post below.