The Town

"We won't get 24 hour surveillance on these guys unless they convert to Islam" - Don Draper

What the hell? I am forty minutes into 'The Town' which was co-written and directed by Ben Affleck (or as we call him for some unknown reason - Ben Whoflack) and it's really terrific. The dialogue and relationships are great. That bastard has no excuse to ever be in a terrible movie ever again.

Remember, I LIKED Daredevil. However, the time is past when he should be making anything other than what he writes and directs himself. He now has the cred to tell the studios to go screw themselves even if it means forfeiting the easy payday. You is a genuine 'artist' now Benny boy. You owe the world a lifetime of films like this.


I hearby retract my vow to beat you senseless with a shovel for Gigli. Jennifer Lopez is still on my hit list, however. It doesn't count that your best role was on South Park because you didn't do the voice and they were making FUN of you ("Mooooom, I got Ben Aflack splooge all over me." - Cartman.)

Well lets watch the rest of this movie and see if it continues to delight me. You could be Oscar bait again, Ben (see what I did there?).


Rebecca Hall is a fresh face with a great laugh and smile and Ben wrote her a terrific part. She plays the manager of a bank that Ben and his gang have recently robbed. As the robbers (who include the fantastic Jeremy Renner) flee they take her hostage but release her unharmed. However, they do keep her driver's licence so they can continue to monitor her. Renner wants to do the job initially but Affleck insists of doing it himself.


After several days of spying on her he meets her at a Laundromat and the two hit it off. Opps. I see complications coming from all the way down the street. As predictable as you THINK that situation will become, you would be wrong as I was wrong.

This movie is full of great Boston atmosphere (the city where Ben is from) and little touches that totally round out the story. I feel like I got the 'supersize' meal on this one. This is a filmmaker with confidence and in full command of his craft. He takes TIME telling his story and I so appreciate that. Each relationship Affleck's character has with everyone in his life is given the same great attention be they big or small.

Ben even directs great ACTION sequences. He make scenes as cliche as a police chase into something fresh and original by using the narrow back streets of Boston. I thought "it must be a nightmare driving through that city". I guess those early city planners didn't envision such a thing as an SUV when they designed their road system.



The small parts like FBI agent Adam Frawly (Jon Hamm) and Chris Cooper as Affleck's prisoner father are well written and are part of that 'depth' that I mentioned before. Hamm has an especially great scene where he is interrogating Affleck and gives a monologue that is an actors dream to get to say on camera.

So see this movie and let it raise your standards about what you DESERVE to experience when you give your time to a film. Or you could see Yogi Bear. If you do that all I can say is, "you are dead to me".