The Town or A love letter to Ben Affleck

If you havent' seen The Town stop reading my dopey blog, get out of the house and see it. This movie is up there with Inception for me as best movie of the Summer. Yes, it is still technically a summer movie as the other night began; first day of fall.

For years I have been a BIG Ben Affleck fan. As a die hard Kevin Smith fan you pretty much have to like the guy because he as been in 6 of Kevin's movies, and 7 if you count Kevin being an Exec Producer on Good Will Hunting. I can say, without shame, I really liked Jersey Girl and he was great in it. Daredevil I also found highly enjoyable. (Awesome Jersey Girl/Daredevil story found here at 4:50 in)

Perhaps more astonishing, I can say that I

saw Gigli in theaters on the day it came out. It was only me, my girlfriend at the time, and another couple in the theater. Frankly, I'm surprised it was that crowded. And while that movie is bad, it is not nearly as cartoonishly bad as the media and pop culture would have you believe. And more to the

point, Affleck is actually enjoyable in it. So call me an Affleck apologist, but I must agree with my boy Smitty and say the dude could play the Shark in jaws.

Starting around 2004 it seemed that it became fashionable to take a collective shit on Affleck's head. For whatever reason the combination of Gigli/Jersey Girl was just too much for people to handle. Most would say he made his "comeback" with Gone Baby Gone in 2007. But I would argue it came with his 2006 performance as George Reeves (TV's original Superman) in Hollywoodland. The performance won him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Then he turned his attention behind the camera with Gone Baby Gone. While the film and Affleck's direction of the film received rave reviews, some wondered if it was a fluke and perhaps he was a one hit wonder of a director.

Well, The Town proves it was no fluke. The highest compliment I can pay him for his directing work on this film is that for large sections I felt like I was watching a Martin Scorsese crime drama. He is becoming a force to be reckoned with as a director and I imagine he will have a choice of just about any script he wants for his next project.

Funnily enough Ben Affleck the director may have gotten the best performance we have seen out of Ben Affleck the actor since Chasing Amy. Making a movie where you root for the bad guy is a tricky and delicate game and more often than not I haven't seen it pulled of successfully. Not only did Affleck have to direct such a movie but he had to convincingly pull of the lead character. Perhaps we as the audience were not on the side of Doug MacRay the bank robbing thief, but we did care about him and we were rooting for him to change his life.


Ben also has a great supporting cast to work with and direct. Jon Hamm is amazing as always but does something completely different from Don Draper which is refreshing and awesome.

I have never seen a single episode of Gossip Girl so I had no idea who Blake Lively was but she had me convinced that Affleck just strolled into a bar in Charlestown and picked up the first chick he could find who was pretty, but trashy and addicted to coke and oxy. Great performance by her and a break out role for those uninformed of all things Gossipy and Girly.
Jeremy renner continues to impress. Fresh off the Hurt Locker he plays a great loose cannon/best friend to Doug (Affleck). The rest of the cast does a fine job as well, but I will let you see it for yourself.

If you have ever been to Boston and have an affection for the city the visuals in this movie are pretty amazing. I found myself saying, "Been there...been there," throughout the movie. The climax at Fenway Park is spectacularly shot and makes you wish you could walk out of the theater and catch a game. Like Good Will Hunting and Gone Baby Gone before it, The Town is a love letter to Boston.

This flick is coming out around the time a lot of Oscar buzz worthy films will be coming out and it deserves a lot of said buzz. So get out to a theatre and celebrate the "return" of Affleck. Never doubted the man for a second, after all, he was the bomb in Phantoms, Yo!

And one last video just for fun! Applesauce bitch!!