Saw it yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not a huge Ben Affleck fan so I didn't have high hopes for this one but he not only delivered in terms of direction but also in terms of his acting. The acting was, overall, very good. Jeremy Renner plays his trigger happy part to perfection and John Hamm's also very good. It was nice to see Pete Postlethwaite again and Chris Cooper is always good.

The plot is straight forward: Afllecks crew robs banks. During one heist they take a hostage (Rebecca Hall) but let her go only to find out that she lives in the same neighborhood as they do. Renner wants to kill her but Affleck is against killing so instead he keeps an eye on her. The predictable thing happens - they meet and they fall in love, which doesn't go down well with Affleck's crew or the FBI. Affleck wants out of the life but the local kingpin (Postlethwaite) wont let him. Instead they have to take down one final score - robbing Fenway Park after a Red Sox game but the shit goes sour after they are ratted out, ending with a big shootout with the police.

Sounds familiar?

Obviously the story is heavily inspired by Heat - you could argue that Ben Afflecks character is a cross between DeNiro's and Kilmer's characters in Heat. Throw in a little bit of The Departed (Scorcese's version) and you have The Town. There's even a scene that almost mirror the scene from Heat where Ashley Judd waves away Val Kilmer.

While the similarities certainly are striking in certain areas, The Town does hold its own in others. There's a nice subplot with Afllecks father (Cooper) and Afflecks search for his mother which was done pretty good.

Looking past the Heat similarities, The Town is a good movie imo and if you liked Heat you'll probably like this one as well.

"Pleasantly surprised" That's the second time today someone has said exactly how I feel about a film.

I had zero expectations of this film before watching it, I think I read a few bad reviews or something because in my head this was not going to be very good. So I was more than surprised when after about 20 minutes I got quite excited that I was watching a pretty decent film. Ben Affleck wrote, directed and starred, and I am starting to think the guy has got some talent after all, he is pretty good in this.

Is Boston the only city in America where you can have gritty crime dramas? I seem to have seen so many recently, this certainly has shades of some others. I remember a film a couple of years ago called "What doesn't kill you" which had a very similar Denis Lehane feel as this one does, Affleck obviously directed the Lehane adaptation Gone Baby Gone, another Boston film. I think ultimately this is what stops this from being a great film, it is just loaded with cliches and characters that have been done to death recently. Really they should ban any crime drama from being set in Boston for ten years in order to purge these cliches from our memories. Yes the Boston Irish are bad boys, we know they are, and their fathers are criminals and Mothers are drunk, and they always had a dream growing up to leave for faraway lands...yada yada yada....

I think if Affleck could have got Boston out of his system and set this in some other city, with characters that had not been done to death, this could have been a very great effort, it might still make my top ten to be honest, it is the best crime drama I have seen all year. But as Snipes said, I was pleasantly surprised, worth a watch at any rate.

Sorry to take the thread off topic but why is Sniper a "guest user"? I noticed he hasn't been around lately.

Quoted from Colkurtz8 Sorry to take the thread off topic but why is Sniper a "guest user"? I noticed he hasn't been around lately.

Just having a break I think, sometimes it can be a good thing for the soul!

I watched the theatrical cut of this film last night.
Then compared it to the 25 minute extended cut to be released on DVD 12/17.

I like the film, though keep in mind I am a born and bred Bostonian.
Any film that brings money to my hometown gets a leg up in my book.
There are a lot of similarities to Heat here, no doubt about it.
I could have done without the scene where Affleck is watching Heat over a beer.
It's a sound picture with crisp biting action, but it didn't dazzle me.
I like the structure, acting, pacing, direction, it's all good just nothing great for me.
No surprises, no big acting stretches, save for Renner showing some new stuff.
I like the chemistry between Affleck and Hall, though there's not much there.
I'm glad to see Affleck back on top, it takes a lot to reinvent your career in this town.

The extended cut did not change the story, just extended it to 150 minutes.
Affleck struggles with cocaine addiction and there's more hookers, meh.
There's a scene added where Affleck steals a boat to impress Hall, meh.
There's some nice banter and exposition with Hamm and his partner that helped.
They have a spiel about closing the bridge and talking to witnesses I liked.
I wish they had put that in the film, helped me navigate the film better.

A good effort, I look forward to seeing how Affleck the director follows up this success.

E.D.

Finally saw this last night through a Blu Ray rental from Netflix (Yes, I'm back on Neflix, so get ready for alot of reviews coming up!).

I had wanted to see this last year at the theater, but never got around to it.  It received great word of mouth, a 94% Tomato approval rating, and took in almost $155 Million WW on a $37 Million budget.  All very impressive, indeed.

I can't say I liked it.  I'm not going to say I hated it, but I definitely didn't like it, and I felt alot like I did when I watched Heat.  I was bored most of the time, didn't buy much of the actions of the characters, but was impressed when the action finally decided to ramp itself up.

There are several powerful, exciting action scenes here.  All are well done, and come off as realistic and gritty.  Loved 'em!  But, the vast majority of the 127 minute run time is extremely dull and downright unbelievable, and that's always where I have a major problem.

The central story-lines (the bank robbing and the romantic relationship of Affleck and Hall's characters is just foolish.

To think that the 4 goons could be getting away with all their crimes over the years, is ludicrous.  Once the FBI decides to go after them, it seems like they've known all along who's behind the crimes, and it's a simple process to tie them together,a nd even find out where/when the next biggie is going down.

And to think that a lowlife goon like Affleck's character would become romantically involved with Hall's much more upscale character, is also ludicrous...but even more so because getting close to someone like that is literally the last thing he'd want to do.  IMO, it was cringe-worthy.

I can't say I liked a single character here.  None of the bank robbers had anythign going for them that made me root for them.  Hall's character was a complete idiot.  The FBI dudes were also cliche, 1 dimensional cardboard cutouts, so why root for them?

For every ounce of believability, there were 10 ounces of ridiculousness.  For every pound of action, there were 25 pounds of sleep inducing padding. And, for everything I liked about the movie, there were at least 25 things I disliked or hated.

The Town will be disappearing from my memory before the long weekend is over.

Haven't seen it bro but the book is was based on is brilliant  check it out

i'll say this... Jeremy Renner is one scary mo-fo in that movie.