Hi everyone,
So, I know I was going to do a blog on fall films in general, but I decided to instead do something else. In the span of a month, I have seen three films (two in one weekend). So I decided, rather than talk about fall films (expect a blog for that sometime later), I will focus my attention to these three rather diverse films.
The first film I saw was “The Town” by Ben Affleck, I say “by” because he directs, writes, stars and produces the film. The movie is about a group of bank robbers in Charlestown, Boston. Once on a heist, they take a prisoner hostage, played by Rebecca Hall (quite aptly, not too over the top). Affleck plays Doug McCray, and his crew (Renner, Slaine, Welliver and Burke) then realize she doesn’t live too far from them, which they find a problem. Affleck checks up on her from time to time, sparking
romance amongst the two. We then have Jon Hamm of “Mad Men” plays Special Agent Adam Frawley, who is always one step behind Affleck’s crew.Not going to lie, Boston is becoming one heck of a sub-genre of films when you have such films as the Departed, Mystic River and Affleck’s own Gone Baby Gone set in Boston this past decade. You’re going to notice this is very much a Ben Affleck film, which isn’t really a bad thing. Sure he has had his fair share of misses as an actor (Daredevil and Pearl Harbor to name a few), but as a director, he is 2 for 2. The action scenes are tremendous and the dialogue is quite intelligent and intense (you will never get a more nerve racking conversation of a 20 dollar bill than from Jon Hamm’s character). The cast is tremendous, even with cameos from Chris Cooper as McCray’s dad. I hold the highest honor for Jeremy Renner (Hurt Locker, 28 Weeks Later), who plays Affleck’s best friend Jeb. Renner takes his character to a whole other level as a robber who would rather die than face prison. I put this on my top ten for best picture, Affleck for Director and writing, film editing (flawless), Jeremy Renner for supporting Actor (my frontrunner) among others. I give The Town a solid A. On a side note: for a trailer, they used the song "Not Afraid" by Eminem. After seeing this movie, that song has been stuck in my head ever since.
Another film I saw was the American, starring George Clooney. It has a simple plot, Clooney is an assassin simply named Jack. He takes a vacation to Italy where paranoia kicks in. Not only that, but he seems to have been
followed or tracked down. He falls in love and soon everything starts to get complicated as the story unfolds.I could go on telling the story, but quite frankly, it’s really as generic as I am telling you now. You get very little background, the characters aren’t very interesting and at the end, I didn’t really have much of an interest. Clooney is good here, but he is nothing special. The fact is, coming off of Up in the Air though, I would expect more from Clooney. I would recommend this if you’re a fan of spy films, but as a rental, it’s no Bourne. I give this movie a C.
Film #3 coming soon
