Reviews by Matt

Almost forgot:


I make a lot of movie recommendations. It just comes with the territory of being know as the movie guy. I do not get many movies recommended to me, so when I do I take it seriously. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine, told me I had to see “The Town.” I had that Friday free so I took her recommendation.

“The Town” takes place in Charlestown Mass. It is known for its high occurrence of bank robberies. Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) is a man who makes his living doing just that—robbing banks. During one such robbery, he and crew take Claire (Rebecca Hall) hostage. After they let her go, Doug keeps an eye on her to make sure that she doesn’t know anything that could get them caught. He “bumps into” her one day and they strike up a relationship. When Doug’s best friend James (Jeremy Renner) discovers the relationship he confronts Doug and the relationship between the two friends becomes strained.
Meanwhile FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm) is determined to catch them and hopes that Claire can give him anything to use to catch them.

For a long time Ben Affleck Hollywood’s whipping boy. I even used him in an April Fool’s article for the school paper. In the past few years he has been anything but that. He made is directorial debut with “Gone Baby Gone” a few years ago. It got nominated for a few Oscars and Ben was back in the good graces of Hollywood. Now he is back as writer, director and this time, star of “The Town.” Affleck gives a really good performance here. He shows that he is a great actor and those movies he made for a few years were just flukes.

There is a lot to like about this movie. Renner and Hamm deliver some pretty good performances too. Even Blake Lively (of “Gossip Girl” fame) is actually impressive. All around, the movie is strong. There are some pretty intense car chases and the final robbery takes place in an unlikely and iconic Boston setting.
It would appear my friends don’t have such bad taste in movies. I will take future recommendations with a grin of salt though because my friend also told me she was going to watch “Twilight” that night too.

8 out of 10
Rated R for strong violence, pervasive language, some sexuality and drug use
125 min