The Town
Director: Ben Affleck
With: Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Titus Welliver, Blake Lively, etc.
Doug MacRay (Affelck) is the leader of a crew from Charlestown in Boston, that robs banks and armored cars. This is something of a tradition in that neighborhood. They are smart and quick, but Jem (Renner) takes a hostage (Hall) on impulse.
They let her go, and Doug is assigned to find out what she knows and kill her if necessary. But, he falls in love with her. This causes problems with Jem, who has been like a brother to Doug.
Meanwhile, FBI agent Frawley (Hamm) is hot on their trail, and has the resources and the guts to run them down.
There is a lot good about this movie, but the whole kind of sags under its own cliches. And, with only his second movie as a director, Affleck has created his own formula, the tough Boston-Irish cops-and-robbers flick with a gooey center. Let’s hope he breaks out of his own jail in his next movie.
The Town is watchable, a violent crime caper with a human side, but not a knockout. Still, Affleck does a credible job directing, and has remembered how to act.
B-
Lebanon (Israeli 2009)
Director: Samuel Maoz
With: Yuav Donat, Itay Tiran, Michael Moshonov, etc.
Gripping film based on Maoz’s experiences in an Israeli tank during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982. The new guy is a gunner who is afraid to shoot, there is dissension in the crew, and the infantry officer who commands the tank crew is a gung-ho hothead.
As they move further into Lebanon, they are attacked by Syrian troops and Hizbollah guerillas. The horror of war, and the stupidity, are in evidence at each incident. They must rely on Falangist guerrillas who may or may or may not have their best interests in mind. And, when they get stuck in a destroyed village, they do things that Maoz has regretted for years.
Reinforces all of our bad feelings about modern warfare. Very hard to take, especially the treatment of civilians by the soldiers, and the cruelty of the Christian Falangists.
I eagerly await a similar soul-searching movie from a Hizbollah veteran.
B+