Solid heist movie, not the ripoff it's being called

Rating: 9/10 (30 October 2010)

Being a hard-core movie goer I'm not much of a reviewer, this is my first review and it's because I really felt I had to do it. There's a lot of people out there calling The Town a Heat ripoff, and being a fan of Michael Mann's Heat I completely disagree with this statement. First of all, both movies don't share the same lead characters (or the focus on one over other), while Heat deals mainly with Hanna and his personal family/job struggle (and I'm no going to detail the difference's between Hamm's and Pacino's characters, their depth, relevance and involvement on the development of the story is completely different) , The Town involves mainly MacRay's issues, there's no similarity whatsoever between MacRay and McCauley, not even on the concept they've got over the profession and don't get me started on their personality... Then we've got the Affleck/Hall phone scene, which is being compared with the Val Kilmer/Judd scene...absolutely ridiculous, the relationship between the characters isn't even the same (come on, Kilmer was married to Judd and they both had a son), and well, cops often go to the thieves family to check contact, I mean, they want to capture them after all, right? Oh and of course, the socioeconomic status of Affleck is deeply involved with the background topic of the movie, a topic that has no relevance on Heat...I could go on all day. The only point I can agree with is that the dynamic is similar, but being both heists movies and recognizing the "Golden age of originality" that surrounds Hollywood these days (sarcasm here), It is almost valid to say that it's just the concept what was taken from Mann's masterpiece, I mean, being clear it's not a ripoff at all, I dare you to call it a remake, if you do it you should get a doctor man.
All in all The Town is a 20th century heist movie that stands on it's own, somewhere between Heat and Reservoir Dogs, it's a solid thriller that manages to create a solid suspenseful atmosphere from the very beginning, an achievement Affleck can be proud of, it is a memorable movie, it is a FRESH heist movie, and you guys should evaluate all the aspects of a movie before calling it a ripoff, it's two different movies you're comparing.
8/10