The Town

Director: Ben Affleck
Year Released: 2010
Rating: 1.5

Bah-stan-based bank thug (auteur Affleck) 'falls' for one of his hostages (Rebecca Hall), except she doesn't know he's a criminal (he and his crew were wearing masks), which gets problematic when he keeps on his anti-social antics and she keeps getting grilled by the Federal Bureau of Incompetence (epitomized by a humorless Jon Hamm). The bank robbery scenes and chase sequences are undistinguished (Affleck's good with dialogue, so-so with action), the core relationship between Affleck and Hall stretches credibility and the whole movie is just another instance of waiting for the inevitable: there are only so many suicide missions one can go on before things Can Go Wrong (hot-headed cohort Jeremy Renner doesn't know when to stop). That Affleck's character is able to flee - after robbing, of all places, Fenway Park, and outsmarting countless armed law enforcers - is utterly ludicrous.