Great Crime Drama

Rating: 10/10 (25 December 2010)

It's true Ben Affleck has been in some rather bad movies(cough "Reindeer Games") but really his record is definitely over .500 from "Good Will Hunting" to "The Sum of All Fears" and the underrated "Changing Lanes". He's been the butt of a lot of jokes but when it comes to his directorial debut "Gone Baby Gone" and this one "The Town" no ones laughing. The one thing that shocked me was the real suspense I felt during the movie. One thing directors are doing now that is ruining this is making the audience omniscient. Giving us all the views so we know whats coming around every corner. Here we're left in the dark to guess what's going on just as the characters are wondering what's going on.
A movie like this rely's heavily on the actors and some you'll recognize from "Gone Baby Gone". Jeremy Renner who most of you will remember from last year's "Hurt Locker" however is your looking for a reprise of that role stop and look for something else. Here he's playing a thug and thief and he does it masterfully. The rest of MacRay's crew is effective in there roles from Slaine as the driver to Blake Lively as Coughlin's drugged out sister with a daughter and no idea who the father is. Also Jon Hamm as the F.B.I. agent Frawley is good even though he seems like the villain in all this you have to remember the heroes of this movie are criminals, that is all I'll say on that subject.
One side note that I've been finding more and more interesting lately is that when people walk out a theatre playing a movie like this there is always one or two people saying "they didn't need all that bad language" my first thought is, well when your in a shoot out or running from the cops your not thinking "oh shoot I really hope I get away". So be warned if language or violence offends you stay clear of this one or really any crime movie of this sort.
If your still reading then this is your sort of movie and you will not be disappointed I enjoyed every minute of it and was actually on the edge of my seat for part of it. I try to while until I write a review on any movie so I'm not still in awe of the initial viewing. So as I have viewed "The Town" again I'm reminded how much I was enjoyed this movie and how it will probably rank up with the greats like "Heat".
I'm actually excited to see what Ben Affleck does next, whereas some could argue "Gone Baby Gone" was a fluke, I can't see anyone saying it now after this one.