Good ol' cops and robbers no-nonsense genre film

Rating: Null/10 (24 September 2010)

A fast, post-HEAT genre vehicle that substitutes the glossy sea-view apartments and wide highways common to this sort of thriller with a more downbeat, old neighbourhood feel (bank robbing is a 'profession' passed down through generations), with narrow one-way streets that hinder any getaway truck and community buildings long in need of grants and refurbishment. If it's heart is in the right place – one can see its intentions firmly written on its sleeve – it settles too often on old-fashioned motion-turning: even the 'moral ambiguity' of the cops and robbers dynamic has point-of-view on its side, and Affleck is too keen on playing the good-guy villain. Scenes between him and Rebecca Hall are driven by shorthand superficiality: personal past parental problems stand in for genuine character depth; John Hamm seems to be on board only to test his big-screen potential. That said, it's an often involving entry into the heist genre that handles its material with much commitment and not much pretension.
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