am trying to figure out specifically why I feel rather insouciant towards Ben Affleck’s second directorial feature, The Town. The movie, on the surface, is well executed and well acted and the intriguing elements from the source novel, Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan are there. Yet, in contrast to the many positive reviews this film has received, I walked away in the end feeling the characters and story had never come to three dimensional life.
Part of the problem lies with the fact that the movie’s plot is much more familiar this time around than in Affleck’s very fine directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone. We have seen the plot of the criminal wanting to get out after one final job and the anti-hero who finds unexpected love that compels to break out of his old ways. Thus, the story requires more life breathed into it to overcome its familiarity and the movie ultimately never quite gets there.
The setting of The Town is the neighborhood of Charlestown in Boston about which the movie informs us produces more bank robbers than any other town in the world. The film’s opening scene is a bank heist executed by Douglas McRay (Ben Affleck) and his gang including James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), Albert “Gloansy” Magloan (Slaine) and Desmond Elden (Owen Burke). They hold the bank manager, Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) at gunpoint to open the vault, then briefly take her hostage blindfolded amidst their getaway.
Though unharmed, Claire, who is not a native of Charlestown, is traumatized by the experience. An FBI agent, Adam Brawley (Jon Hamm from TV's Mad Men) interviews her to learn what she remembers. She remembers nothing, as the gang wore masked disguises and she had been blindfolded when taken hostage.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
The Expandebles
From now on, for every time someone tells me how cool it is that I get to go see movies to review, I will point to a movie like The Expendables, just so they know it is not always fun.
The Expendables is a movie that suffers from one small defect. It is terrible. There really is no easy way to put that, and that hurts to say, because I really wanted to like this movie, but it just fails on so, so many levels that you almost feel bad for it. You want to forgive the wretched acting, and the plot that meanders around the screen like a drunken David Hasselhoff eating a cheeseburger.
Still, The Expendables is in many ways review-proof. The word of mouth will likely hurt the box office sooner or later, but no matter what the critics say, people will flock to it at first. I would be shocked if it did not have a massive opening weekend. And why not. The stars of this movie have earned the benefit of the doubt, especially when it comes to action movies. The draw of this movie will not be the plot- it won’t even be the action you have seen in the trailers- it will be the potential. As a fan of action movies, it is almost impossible not to be excited for this movie from name recognition alone. The best comparison for the cast that I could think of would be the original basketball Dream Team that laid waste to the Olympic competition. Unfortunately there are serious flaws to the movie that are impossible to overlook.
Irony Doesn’t Make it OK
Directed by Sylvester Stallone, from a story by Stallone and Dave Callaham, The Expendables brings together legends of the action world. If you are even slightly interested in action, you will have unavoidably seen at least one of these stars at some point, in some way, blowing something up. It is an homage to the lost art of the 80s flick, back when it was a simpler time for action movies. The good guy was clearly identifiable as the good guy, and the bad guy was so evil, he was eeeeevil. The first problem with The Expendables is that it tries too hard to recreate those movies, but it does so with a knowing wink to the audience that was probably supposed to make it all OK because it was ironic, and stuff. Instead, the movie nearly becomes a parody of those same action movies it looks to honor.
The Expendables is a movie that suffers from one small defect. It is terrible. There really is no easy way to put that, and that hurts to say, because I really wanted to like this movie, but it just fails on so, so many levels that you almost feel bad for it. You want to forgive the wretched acting, and the plot that meanders around the screen like a drunken David Hasselhoff eating a cheeseburger.
Still, The Expendables is in many ways review-proof. The word of mouth will likely hurt the box office sooner or later, but no matter what the critics say, people will flock to it at first. I would be shocked if it did not have a massive opening weekend. And why not. The stars of this movie have earned the benefit of the doubt, especially when it comes to action movies. The draw of this movie will not be the plot- it won’t even be the action you have seen in the trailers- it will be the potential. As a fan of action movies, it is almost impossible not to be excited for this movie from name recognition alone. The best comparison for the cast that I could think of would be the original basketball Dream Team that laid waste to the Olympic competition. Unfortunately there are serious flaws to the movie that are impossible to overlook.
Irony Doesn’t Make it OK
Directed by Sylvester Stallone, from a story by Stallone and Dave Callaham, The Expendables brings together legends of the action world. If you are even slightly interested in action, you will have unavoidably seen at least one of these stars at some point, in some way, blowing something up. It is an homage to the lost art of the 80s flick, back when it was a simpler time for action movies. The good guy was clearly identifiable as the good guy, and the bad guy was so evil, he was eeeeevil. The first problem with The Expendables is that it tries too hard to recreate those movies, but it does so with a knowing wink to the audience that was probably supposed to make it all OK because it was ironic, and stuff. Instead, the movie nearly becomes a parody of those same action movies it looks to honor.
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