The Town: A Stupid, Overrated, Crappy Movie:

i haven't seen The Town, but i always thought he did a great job with a Boston accent in Good Will Hunting. i grew up there, so i knows about 'dis stuff.

now, if you want to hear a really awful, forced Mass accent, go watch The Perfect Storm. it's like nails on a chalkboard.

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Botton line, I think the argument here rests on the fact that somebody hates Ben Affleck and doesn't believe films where the "bad guys" win (although they didn't) should be considered good. I agree that going against the critics and even the mainstream viewers is totally legit because I do it all the time, but this seems to be the case in here right now. Maybe predictable, but 98% of movies are predictable. I just don't see the film as poorly-made at all. Am I wrong?

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I just don't agree with you, mark f, that's all. So, yes, I am going against what the mainstream viewers and critics say about The Town, that's true, and it's my right to do so. I personally don't care much for those kind of loose endings in movies, especially something like The Town, which, imo, might've been a better film with a different kind of ending; Doug being caught and immediately sent to a Federal penitentiary to serve some long, hard time for his crimes, and Claire either being criminally prosecuted herself, or put on some sort of probation for tipping off Doug MacRay to the Feds, thereby abetting an armed felon and wanted fugitive, and enabling him to escape the law.

One thing is rather obvious; When FBI Agt. Frawley said to Claire "You know the FBI is a national organization.' and then requested that the FBI most-wanted photos of Doug MacRay be circulated, Agt. Frawley meant that no matter where Doug MacRay went in the United States, the Feds would eventually find him and send him to prison, where he belongs.

Why did Doug end up leaving Claire behind when he skipped town for Florida? Because he was an armed felon and wanted fugitive, who was on the lam from the law, and that he'd be caught sooner or later, and Claire obviously couldn't look past the fact that Doug and his buddies had robbed her bank and kidnapped her at gunpoint, and traumatized her enough so that she quit her job as a bank manager.

What I find most irritating about this film is the fact that Claire, an educated woman with a decent income as a bank manager, who owned an expensive Charlestown condominium who obviously knew better, pulled the kind of stunts that she did, by lying to the Feds and police to protect and abet Doug, even after learning what he was up to.

Krista, who was a drug/alcohol addicted single mother of Shyne, who was an infant (the father of the child unknown), due to Krista's having slept with so many guys around town, including Doug MacRay, her former boyfriend, had grown up her whole life under Doug and Jem's shadow. They were two rough and tough guys who were professional armed robbers and wanted fugitives, and Krista, who was Jem's sister, had far fewer choices in life than Claire Keesey.

Krista, for sure, worked for Fergie the Florist, who was their crime boss, helped plan the robberies and where they'd be, as well as obtain the costumes, and book the hotel rooms where Doug and his men holed up prior to the robberies, and was a drug mule for Fergie. Moreover, Krista got into a DUI accident with her daughter, Shyne, and was injured. I don't advocate the sordid lifestyle that Krista led, and she was clearly no angel, but you know what? Claire was no angel either, as it turned out.

Ben Affleck, imho, was far too wooden to be a bad-assed tough guy like Doug MacRay. He was much too polished, as well, and so was his accent.

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I'm not sure how one argues about the accent or even the performance, but I thought Affleck was just fine, and he's been very good in the past. And I can't really wrap my head around anyone thinking he's not even a good director.

He's a talented guy. He's made some bad films, sure, but he's also made some very good ones. Plenty to like. Sorry if you don't dig on him, but I feel pretty differently about his talent level.

Re: Claire. There are a whole lot of movies that are contingent on otherwise normal people doing crazy things because they become infatuated with someone.

I agree with you wholeheartedly about Ben Affleck's role in Good Will Hunting, ash_is_the_gal. That was a good, well-done movie, and Ben Affleck and Matt Damon worked well together in that particular film.

However, I saw Perfect Storm when it first came out and was in the theatres, and, in that case, I failed to notice the Mass. accents, due to having enjoyed it so much. I thought it was quite well done.

I, too really liked Ben Affleck a great deal in Good Will Hunting, Yoda. I didn't like him in The Town, because I felt that, in this case, he was too wooden. I though that the directing in The Town was rather stunted, because Ben Affleck bit off more than he was able to chew, and The Town didn't have a good cast, except for Jeremy Renner, who did a good job of playing the role of the hot-headed, unstable "Jem". I think that Ben Affleck did a good job directing Gone Baby Gone, and his brother, Casey, is a much better actor, but that's another issue.

Claire was infatuated with Doug, and she ended up having a complete breakdown when it backfired on her. She actually abetted him by lying to the Feds about who he really was, stuck with Doug even after learning that he was an armed felon and wanted fugitive, who, with his buddies, had robbed her bank and kidnapped her at gunpoint while wearing masks, and by tipping Doug off to the Feds when they were on the verge of catching him and sending him back to jail, where he belonged. Moreover, Claire had no right to spend stolen money on the renovation of a hockey rink. She should've turned it into the authorities anonymously.

To be truthful, although Claire started out as an innocent victim (it wasn't her fault that her bank was robbed and that she was kidnapped at gunpoint by Doug MacRay and his men, who were wearing Hallowe'en masks at the time), but I lost my sympathy for Claire when she became fully involved in a romance with Doug MacRay, continued to have contact with him even after learning who he really was, and abetting him by enabling him to escape the law with a "sunny days" tip-off code.

I don't know, DrStrangelove. The Town had a lot of potential for being a really good film, but fell woefully short of that potential. It would've been a better movie (and a better book), imo, if Doug MacRay had ended up going on to be a professional star in ice hockey (he did play for the Bruins at one point), after beating the odds and not following in his criminal father's footsteps of becoming a thief, a thug and a murderer, to boot.

Hi, Justin. We can agree that The Town was overrated. I liked the beginning of The Town, with both the ground and aerial shots of Charlestown, and just seeing a lot of the local scenery was fun for me, since I'm also from the Boston area. I really enjoyed the first heist, but The Town began to go rapidly downhill for me after that.

I agree that the ending of the film was horrible. I wish that Doug and Claire had gotten their just desserts and been punished.

Here's another thing, DrStrangelove. It's hard to believe that most people didn't realize the fact that Doug just totally pulled the wool over Claire's eyes, which she allowed him to do, and he lured her into a trap, which was virtually, if not downright impossible to get out of, due to her not having gone to Agt. Frawley for help as soon as she realized that she was in over her head with Doug MacRay.

It's hard to believe that so many people believed that Doug MacRay was a decent guy, when, in fact he wasn't. He was leaving for Florida because he was an armed felon and wanted fugitive who was trying to evade the law.

Noones saying Doug Macray was a good guy, he was a criminal and in this particular film the criminal was the protagonist. People always root for the protagonist whether good or bad. This doesn't necessarily make it a bad film. Look at American Psycho, the protagonist was a lunatic and in the end he didn't get caught! It's still a good film. Truth is, the bad guys don't always get caught. Also, about Claire, you ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome? It's not that out of the ordinary for someone to act like that.

In conclusion, its a movie. It's suppose to be a fun heist film. Your over analysing it. This isnt Gone with the Wind. Just enjoy it, this is one of the better popcorn flicks I've seen.

To me it was pretty good (say a 7.7) Couple of bones to pick but pretty minor.... the ending seemed a little bit cheesy. And how do innocent girls launder large wads of money? And where are these mystical islands and charming huts that all cornered movie characters escape to at the end? I wanna go there....

John Hamm was miscast in my opinion-- Although he was fine in his performance, it's too soon for me to see Don Draper with a badge; it messes with my head. I thought Blake Lively and Jeremy Renner did great jobs. And Pete Postlethwait was a nice treat to see too.

Not a masterpiece IMO, but a good fun popcorn movie.

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I don't know how much there is to attack here. It's a film...and it was edited...and it was nothing else, not even "escapism". So, I suppose by definition it is stupid but its not really anything. The ultimate "shrug".

I stand by my opinion that The Town is not a good film, although it had the potential to be so. Since I've never seen American Psycho, I can't compare it with The Town. I don't root for Doug even though he is a protagonist here, because even the protagonist isn't always right. One is supposed to sympathize and root for both Doug and Claire because they're protagonists, but I can't bring myself to do so.

Doug is not only a hard-core professional criminal and wanted fugitive, but he took full advantage of Claire when she was in a most vulnerable state; after he and his men robbed her bank and kidnapped her at gunpoint. I've heard of the Stockholm Syndrome, and, yes, it's not unheard of for a woman to fall in love with her captor and be manipulated by him into believing that he really loves and cares about her, when, in fact, this really wasn't the case.

Just because that happens in real life doesn't make it a good thing, and doesn't mean that it's healthy, either. Claire allowed Doug to totally take advantage of her, and manipulate her into not going to the Feds. He didn't care about her at all. He just wanted to avoid having him and his buddies punished for their wrongdoing and to get away with it. That's why I can't route for Doug or his friends.

The fact that Claire so readily accepted a date from a total stranger who approached her in a local laundromat without sizing him up first indicates that she displayed no common sense whatsoever. Was Claire really so dimwitted that she hadn't the slightest hint(s) of what Doug was really up to? The stupid jokes and somewhat leering, creepy looks that Doug gave Claire when he asked her out should've provided a clue that Doug really was up to no good. Claire was either too naive or willfully ignorant to see that.

I'm kind of confused. You say it's a bad film, but then you go on to list general plot points that seem to only make the case that one of the characters isn't such a great guy. But obviously that's not the same thing. Primary characters can be flawed, or even outright bad.

I can sympathize with someone who says they're not interested in stories that don't have someone you can like. That's a perfectly valid opinion, even if it leaves out some classics. But it's a very different opinion from declaring such films bad, no? There's nothing inherently bad about a film with a protagonist who's screwed up.

I enjoyed seeing lots of the local scenery shot as the background of The Town, especially since I'm also from the Boston area. Pete Postlethwaite was Okay, and I agree that Jeremy Renner did a wonderful job also. Blake
Lively...not sure of--she was soso, as was most of the cast in The Town

Jon Hamm didn't seem that experienced in the movie world, and neither did a lot of the cast, and the acting really wasn't that good, and there were some very overdone scenes, and they spent too much time on the Doug-Claire romance.

Oh, and I also might add that the reason that Claire and Doug couldn't realistically stay together is that they both knew, at some level, that Doug's days of hiding out in Florida were numbered; sooner or later he was going to be hunted down, caught and sent to serve long, hard time in a federal penitentiary, which would be perfectly just.

As for Claire, I found her so annoying and disgusting that I don't really care what happens to her at this point.

The ending was rather cheesy, and that was one of the major things wrong with The Town, imho. It's possible that with a different ending, The Town might've been a better film, but who knows? I wish that the Feds had given Claire the choice of keeping her trap shut and helping them get Doug put away for a really long time, or facing criminal prosecution herself, or at least probation, for abetting Doug, lying to the Feds to protect him, and for tipping Doug off to the Feds' presence in her home with a "sunny days" code.

Doug was more than just a protagonist (a regular guy who screwed up). He was a career criminal, a professional armed robber and a wanted fugitive, who'd done his share of beating up, traumatizing, injuring and killing innocent people without provocation. The reason that I thought The Town was so bad is because, for the most part, it wasn't a good cast, it was badly-acted, too much editing, and it presented glaring stereotypes of the professional armed robber and thug with a heart of gold and the fair damsel in distress. Also, the shoot-out and car chase scenes in Fenway Park and the North End were totally unbelievable. There's no way that anybody could've realistically survived these car crashes and firefights. The Town was extremely cartoon-like, as well. As another poster on here adequately put it, The Town was also a whole bunch of elements from far better-done films that were simply slapped together. I also think that the company that Doug kept said a great deal about him and the kind of person that he really was, and not positively, either.

Being a fan of heist films, I did liked the movie. Nothing new, but still worth my time. It's not that bad. Actors are okay. Overall movie is okay, entertaining but nothing memorable. I thought it was better than most movies released last year.

I thought it was a decent flick, but I agree with WSSLover that the romance was

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Truth be told, however, none of them are nice guys. Doug and his buddies aren't simply flawed. They're career criminals who deserve to be put away, and because they're such pros at what they do (rob banks and armored cars at gunpoint), they're also quite skillful at using bleach and all to destroy evidence, and they're quick enough to get away with it.

Something goes wrong during the first heist of the film and, at "Jem"s idea, they take Claire Keesey, the bank manager as a hostage. Sure, Doug restrained "Jem" from "offing" Claire the way he wanted to do, but Jem beat up an assistant manager within inches of his life, permanently injuring him, and it happened on Doug's watch, so, yes, Doug bears responsibility for both the beating of the bank's assistant manager and the armed robbery/abduction of Claire.

Also, Doug think he can arrogantly take a woman hostage, then put the romance moves on her in order to manipulate her into not going to talk to the Feds, and then expect forgiveness after that. That wouldn't necessarily happen in real life. All told, the whole idea of some poor, distressed bank manager who'd just been robbed and kidnapped at gunpoint by four masked thugs falling in love with the ringleader of these guy who did that to her really doesn't sit well with me...at all. The more I think about it, the more it turns me off. Doug's arrogance and manipulativeness, as well as Claire's willful stupidity and gullibility really do turn me off, as well.