Saturday, July 24, 2010

The Town


Ok so its time for an honest moment from me. I have, and I will caveat this later, always liked Ben Affleck as an actor. I KNOW! I know that he has been in some...well, rough, uncompelling movies. I will admit that. But you know, I mean YOU KNOW that Good Will Hunting would not have had as solid of an ending as it did, without Affleck's characters speech to Matt Damon about how he wants him to not come to his front door one day. It's true admit it. I know Daredevil sucked, ok Gigli sucked, ok Paycheck sucked but again most of 2003-2005 sucked for movies too.

And as of late, I have really appreciated his non-jerky approach to movies. He has taken small roles, sometimes funny and sometimes not, and has taken a humble approach to his acting and I appreciated that. It's cool to see a guy who could be in a starring role and then get killed off in the first 10 minutes of a film (Guy Pearce did it in Hurt Locker and Affleck did it in Smoking aces).

That scenario always has a "Whoa, what?" aspect to it and makes you just shake your head for a moment because you have it ingrained in you that particular actor should be on that screen for a longer time than he is. I love it. I love to see good actors humble themselves to lend their talent briefly to a project. It shows that they love their craft and they are not above only have five minutes on screen. It surprises me and I love to be surprised in a good way at the movies and Affleck has shown me that continually (he was GREAT in "She's Just Not That Into You" as well in a small role).

Now the Fall movie season is coming (a movie season I used to hate but since the Departed came out in October 2006, I now love), and with it some great contenders up against "Inception" for Oscars. One of them looks like "The Town" starring Affleck and Jon Hamm and Jeremy Renner and a slew of other heavy acting hitters. When you say those three names together however, you can't but be blown away with what might happen. I am already looking forward to cooler temperatures, putting on my Navy Peacoat, and walking to the theatre to go see this movie.

The trailer explains the idea of the movie in detail, of course so I won't go too deep into it. Just know there is a bank robbery, one of the bank robbers (Ben Affleck) falls in love with one of the bank employees, pursues a realtionship with said employee, whilst being pursed by tenacious FBI Agent (Jon Hamm) and being looked at warily by fellow bank robbers (Jeremy Renner). Affleck does star and direct in it, Jon Hamm already was talking it up in March on "The Nerdist Podcast" as a great movie and Affleck was great to work with and just fun to chat with. Whenever an actor is talking about a co-worker without a direct question about "how did you two find working with each other" from a reporter during the media blitz preceding a movie, chances are they really liked working with each other. And that translates most of the time into good times at the theatre.

Anyways, the movie might fall flat, it might be awesome, but judging from the talent, the apparent story, and the fact that its based on an incredible book, this movie is on my must see list. Right behind Inception, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. So go see another Ben Affleck movie set in Boston (surprise!) this fall. I think that you guys will like it, and forgive Affleck for Paycheck already, he's done his penance by having to propose to Jennifer Anniston on film. Isn't that enough for you people!? See you all at the movies.