A surprisingly great flick

Rating: 8/10 (19 September 2010)

Like most of you here, I was very skeptical towards this movie. No way Ben Affleck can pull out something that's even half way decent. So before walking into the theater, I was actually trying to hate on this movie. I went in expecting the worst.
I remember it was a Friday evening. As I walked through the dark corridors to where they are showing the movie, I realized one thing. I realized if something goes wrong with the projector or the stereo, I can get a free pass for another movie. There I was hoping the above mentioned to happen. Please let the film burn out. Please allow the rats to chew that wire connected to the stereo.
I closed my eyes as a brief introduction on Charleston starts playing. I knew this 2-hour picture will slowly kill my eyes. I didn't want to go blind, not over a starring-Ben-Affleck video. But then I have paid $7 for the ticket. I couldn't allow myself to waste $7, so I decided to endure two hours of torture and pain, so the rest of humanity doesn't have to.
A couple of minutes in, we see a bunch of people in skull masks, let's say, repossessing cash which supposedly belongs to the bank. Early on we're already looking at predictable characters. You know one who is unorthodox and mentally off ; one who's clam and nice; and then there is always the damsel in distress. Never seen that before. And then somehow, the FBI would like to investigate on this robbery even though the crew works within the state. Nope, not the cops, but the feds. Of course we need a character from the "good side". There we go, a special agent who is a prick. Good.
That is pretty much how the synopsis goes. Bad guys do bad things. One falls in love with the damsel. Good guy tries to stop the bad guys. So yes, the storyline is far from innovative. At this point, you're probably hesitating on actually paying for the ticket. Same old storyline starring Ben Affleck. Hell it's even directed by Ben Affleck. It's OK to be pessimistic towards this movie.
As the movie keeps playing, I can't help but start having this idea of it being a rip off of the infamous Heat. You know the one with Pacino and De Niro, directed by Mann. What I didn't realize is, when I start drawing comparisons to the one and only Heat, this movie is actually good.
I ended up enjoying the movie. Yes, I went into the cinema wanting to hate the movie, and I ended up giving it an 8/10.
What truly made this joint good is its presentation. Like I said, there's nothing that made the script stood out. Ben Affleck did a hell of a job on giving us what we want to watch. Good shootouts, good suspense, interesting relationships. These are what we want in a drama film that doesn't have exceptionally good writing. He did just that. Well the sex scenes sucked but they only last for around 2 minutes in total so you can just look pass that.
The actors did a fine job. However, I would like to specifically point out that Jeremy Renner has the best performance as the sociopath in the film. He successfully became the character and put up an extremely convincing performance.
There is a great amount of adrenaline-pumping moments in the movie. Lots of shootouts as mentioned. These shootouts are executed flawlessly, though not perfectly. Sound effects are nicely done. Somehow Ben managed to keep emotions running high throughout these scenes. You will want someone to be killed. However, it's wasn't done perfectly because it was lacking intensity, somehow. Yes you want someone to get shot but you don't feel the intensity. Don't ask me why. That is the feeling I get from these scenes. Perhaps it's the environment setting or the characters aren't moving enough. I don't know.
One of the larger problems is the character writing. Like I said, the characters are pretty much what you expect from a movie like this one. That fed, however, is unnecessarily not likable. The writer sculpted him as a prick but we don't get to see how does that affect anything. You just hate him because he's rude to everyone, making it impossible to root for him. What made the Heat's plot extremely interesting is allowing the viewers to be able to root for either the cops or the robbers. The Town could have done the same thing here, and I would have seriously thought about giving it a 9/10. But then, it didn't, so no 9. To sum things up, this movie is a great one and you should go see it. There is still no argument on whether if it's right up there with Heat, but it's good enough to draw comparisons. By the way, the ending is extremely uncalled for. Be prepared for that.