The Town (2010)

August 20, 2024 7:26 PM

Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) leads a band of ruthless bank robbers and has no real attachments except for James (Jeremy Renner), who -- despite his dangerous temper -- is like a brother. Everything changes for Doug when James briefly takes a hostage, bank employee Claire Keesey. Learning that she lives in the gang's neighborhood, Doug seeks her out to discover what she knows, and he falls in love. As the romance deepens, he wants out of his criminal life, but that could threaten Claire.

92% Tomatometer 85% Audience Score (Rotten Tomatoes)

posted by jeremias (3 comments total)

Rewatched this over the weekend after seeing the new amusing heist movie The Instigators and looking for some more Boston-based thievery.

Ooh boy, despite my memory of this being a decent heist movie, it does not hold up, in my opinion. In fact, I think it's actually mediocre. It's romance-based plot is really implausible, even by Hollywood plot standards, and there are lots of filler scenes and Affleck the director really needed to cut some of the monologues and dialog from Affleck the actor.

There's a lot to wade through until you get to the main heist scene at the end, and while there are some good moments, I felt emotionally disengaged from the characters, not really caring what happened to them. And the escape method they used is a played out heist trope even in 2010.

I will give props to Jeremy Renner's performance, he carried a lot of the dramatic tension in this one. But all in all, I'm a little perplexed at all the critical adoration this flick has received over the years.
posted by jeremias at 7:42 PM on August 20 [2 favorites]

I'm just gonna drop the parody mash-up trailer for Boston Movie here: funnyordie link.
posted by rmd1023 at 6:34 AM on August 21 [2 favorites]

Now I want DOT's review of that "Boston Movie" trailer!
posted by wenestvedt at 12:53 PM on August 21