The Town

The Town

Director: Ben Affleck.

Written By: Ben Affleck, Peter Craig and Aaron Stockard.

Photography: Robert Elswit. 

Starring: Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner and Rebecca Hall. 

Year: 2010.

Country: USA.

  After directing his younger brother Casey in the superb Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck places himself in front of the Camera for his next directing venture, The Town. 

 The Town is a modern day bank heist movie with it's heart in bank heist movies of the past. It owes a debt to movies like Michael Mann's Heat. 

 The Town, which is Charlestown, Boston, a place infamous for it's history of Irish Mobs and high crime rates. Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) leads a team of four which includes his amoral best friend, James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner). While robbing a bank Coughlin decided to kidnap the manager, Claire (Rebecca Hall), and leave her blindfolded on a beach. When MacRay runs into her in a laundromat,  he ultimately falls for her. Unaware that her new boyfriend is one of the men that robbed her bank, Claire is helping an FBI team, led by Mad Men's Jon Hamm hunt them down.

 Ben Affleck does a pretty good job of directing, there are the occasional and rare out-of-place arty moments where you think 'Ben, if you wanted to make an art film...' His acting was on-par, too; A lot of people claim to hate Ben Affleck's acting, which I've always found ridiculous. Affleck's nether a particularly good or bad actor, if you "Hate" him you must be really easily offended. 

 The rest of the cast includes Chris Cooper and Pete Postlethwaite (in the last role of his released before his death in early 2011).  Most the acting in the Town is good despite the dialogue sounding unnatural. The actors didn't make the words their own; I think Ben Affleck may have been a bit too protective of his script. The only bad performance was Blake Lively's, whose unbelievable and OTT performance shouldn't come as a surprise as she's awful in everything. 

 If, like me, you thought the coolest thing about Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break was the novelty masks of former presidents they used during the robberies, then you will enjoy the array of diverse masks they use in The Town. Given that when you strip The Town naked it is at most a romance film, it has more than a fair share of on the edge of your seat set species and action sequences. 

 The Town makes for a fairly entertaining watch. A cut above most films of it's type and has potential for repeat viewings; it will make a good double bill with Spike Lee's Inside Man.

   

The Muppets

The Muppets

Director: James Bobin
Written by: Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller.
Photography: Don Burgess 
Starring: Jason Segel, Amy Adams and Chris Cooper
Year: 2011
Country: USA 

 I won't lie and say The Muppets was part of my childhood. I don't have any memories of watching The Muppets on a more than sparse occasion. It took me till fifteen to fully differentiate it from Sesame Street.

 But wherever or not I have a personal spot in my heart for the Muppets means nothing. What's important is that the people involved in making it have. And it's clear for the writing that this isn't another cash-in reboot or remake. It's made with love, which is part of makes it such a joy to watch.

 Walter and Gary are brothers and residents of Smalltown, they're extremely close and are very similar. The one big difference being that one's a puppet and the other is a man, played by Jason Segel. Walter came to terms with being a puppet by finding solidarity with his heroes on his favourite TV program, The Muppet Show. Fast Forward to present day and The Muppet Show is no more but Walter and Gary are still as obsessed. Walter accidentally uncovers a plot by the evil Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) and The Moopets to destroy the Muppet Studio. Walter Gary and his 10 year girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) set off find the Muppets and put on one final show to raise the money to keep the studio open.

 The writing for the most part is charming and funny. It keeps what made The Muppets popular back in the 70s, managing to keep both children and adults entertained with a huge spectrum of jokes while always staying clear of the PG benchmark. Though sometimes the writing feels a little lazy; An evil oil baron called Tex Richman and a small town called Smalltown, it's almost like a James Cameron screenplay.

 I find it hard to judge acting in movies that are playing down to an infant audience because the actors often are too. It's hard to adjust Jason Segel doing this when you're used to seeing him crude post Judd Apatow comedies. 

 They're are a lot of great cameos as there always are in Muppet movies. I won't say who appears because that would spoil it. But to get a grasp of the calibre of celebrities in there; Ricky Gervais, Danny Trejo and Billy Crystal all had their scenes cut out. Though none beat the Orson Welles cameo in the original Muppet movie back in 1979. 

 The musical numbers are fabulous. Written by Bret Mckenzie form Flight of the Concords, the song 'Man or Muppet' won the Oscar for best original song (the fact that only two songs were nominated doesn't take away from its brilliance). Even as a non Muppets fan, Rainbow Connection still makes my heart grow three sizes. It's like The Beatles or hot chocolate, it resonates with everyone.

 The Muppets is the most charming movie I've seen in while, my only disappointment is that it hasn't brought baby blue suits into fashion. 

Score: 4/5