The Town ***possible spoilers***Follow

Saw it the other night. I went in expecting to like the movie, and though my expectations weren't exceeded, they were pretty much met right on the button.

I think I was craving a movie like Heat, and the comparisons between the two were pretty easy to draw. The immaculate heists of movies like Ocean's Eleven are great, but sometimes I'm just really in the mood for a messy, violent "job gone wrong" type robbery. There's something about seeing a thief out in the open and exposed, running and gunning as the net tries to close in around him, that gives a kick to my adrenaline. The Town had that in spades.

I thought Affleck and Renner turned in very solid performances, as did Blake Lively (which surprised me, as I gather that she's from Gossip Girl). I found myself naturally concerned about all of the characters, even the antagonists. The script was simple and fairly derivative, what with its "one last job" stuff, but the authenticity helped put that out of my mind. Odd as it is to say (coming from an action buff), I would have liked to have seen more about the romance in the movie. I felt like I was forced to fill in a lot of blanks about Doug and Claire's relationship...the progression to love seemed to come about very quickly; I think I was supposed to assume that a sizable amount of time was passing as they got more intimate, but couldn't really tell. Minor quibbles though.

It's up there as one of my favorite modern heist movies, I think. Heat is probably my favorite...perhaps Inception if we're getting a little flexible with the definition.

Anyone else see it? How does it stack up to your favorite heist movie?

Edited, Sep 22nd 2010 12:38am by Eske

I used to work right at Bunker Hill, actually, on Monument Square. I walked up the hill every day from the community college stop on the orange line. It was neat to see locations that I passed every day (like the laundromat) used in the filming.

Edited, Sep 22nd 2010 11:39am by Eske