The Town (2010) - Renner stands out in entertaining, flawed training picture for Affleck

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This poster for Ben Affleck's The Town conjures up a threatening vibe

 

A young, beautiful bank director is taken hostage, then freed. One of the robbers falls in love with her. We get to know the bank robbers' mecca: Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts.

 

The Town is written by Peter Craig (Blood Father (2016)), Aaron Stockard (Gone Baby Gone (2007)) and great Californian co-writer-director-star Ben Affleck (Argo (2012)), based on the novel Prince of Thieves (2004) by Chuck Hogan (The Standoff (1995)). It has a good car chase, and Jeremy Renner (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)) is good in it.

The film is pretty entertaining, although it bears the mark of being another 'training movie' for Affleck as director and has a very drawn out ending. The purpose of the film seems to hang in the air to some degree.

Related reviews:

Ben Affleck: Argo (2012) or, The Hollywood Hero (producer-director-star)

Armageddon (1998) or, Macho Men Save Earth From Disaster! (actor)

Dazed and Confused (1993) - Linklater's stoner youth nostalgia is a blast (actor)

Jeremy Renner gives an interview about the film at the Toronto International Film Festival here

Cost: 37 mil. $

Box office: 154 mil. $

= Big hit

[The Town premiered September 8 (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 124 minutes. Warner bought the rights to the book in 2006. Sheldon Turner's developing job was tossed out, as Affleck was hired in 2008. He and his high school mate Stockard did research in Charlestown, including involving locals as extras, and Affleck went specifically for Pete Postlethwaite, who died soon after its release, for the film after seeing his audition tape for Inception. Filming took place from August - September 2009 in Massachusets, including Charlestown, and Connecticut. The claims in The Town about the crime in Charlestown are hugely exaggerated and also refer to a (smaller) spike that happened in the 1990s. The film opened #1 with a 23.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for 3 weeks in total and grossed 92.1 mil. $ (59.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 8.9 mil. $ (5.8 %) and the UK with 7.4 mil. $ (4.8 %). The film received one Oscar nomination: Best Supporting Actor (Renner), which it lost to Christian Bale for The Fighter. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. A 2012 extended cut of around 150 minutes has also been released; it apparently has a darker ending and is preferred by Affleck. The Town is certified fresh at 94 % with a 7.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Town?