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I liked The town!
Take away the Doug and Claire romance and it's a good flick imo.
May be I like the movie so much cause a grew up with dudes like Doug,James and albert.
It's not up there with dog day afternoon or point break.but it does good for a bank robbery flick.
Your first sentence is really spot-on, hitman619! The Doug-Claire romance is what really did ruin The Town for me. Had it been more about the heists, and, with a different cast, it might've been more believable. I wanted to like The Town, but, as I pointed out in my original post and beyond, there are too many overt flaws in this film for me to like it.
I do think, however, that the North End and the Fenway Park shoot-outs between Doug MacRay and his men and the law really were over the top, and unrealistic. I like fiction films too, but there has to be some degree of believability to them, which is something, imo, that The Town lacked.
Eerily similar to the gf of that White Bulger guy don't you think? This shows there are at least some people out there who do not have any regard for morality and are probably attracted to criminals like these......therefore, what the girl in the movie did may be disgusting to most of us, but it not completely unrealistic as there are clearly people who don't care..
ronyusa...I had a discussion with a friend of mine (who hasn't ever seen The Town), and when I told her about it, she thought that The Town was probably based on the Whitey Bulger-Catherine Greig case.
You're right about some people in real life not caring or having any morality to them, and I think that Claire was probably just such a person, underneath her angelic, sweet manner.
Bulger is a very nasty, dangerous piece of work..not supposed to be romanticized..as opposed to say, Henry Hill (the person behind "Goodfellas)...or Tony Sopranos or the many movies based on the lives of the NY crime bosses (Gambino, Colombo etc.) who are not that nasty, dangeous piece of work.....eh???
The truth is, they ALL are nasty, dangerous piece of work. There is nothing good about thugs, mobsters etc. no matter how flashy their lifestyles were or what brand of cubans they smoked. Movies are just that -- they are movies, made for entertainment purposes, that put a glamorous touch on heinous characters that have done heinous things to create some entertainment by blending ruthlessness with some messed up sense of heroism. Must not be confused with real life nor be taken seriously. So don't watch crime movies and then go about taking the high road "oh..they are bad people, they must not be romanticized" ...
What you say about all of the mobsters being nasty and dangerous is true, ronyusa. However, Bulger is especially dangerous, because he's extremely sly, crafty, and cunning, and often enough, he'll strike just out of the blue, without warning, catching people off guard. The extortion of the Rakes' liquor store by Whitey Bulger and his two henchmen is an excellent example of that, because the Rakes' were totally unaware of what Bulger had up his sleeve, or what was going to happen to them.
I also might add that many of these mobsters who are rather tough and dangerous themselves are scared of Bulger, because he's so much smarter and more diabolically clever than many, if not most other mobsters.
Have you ever read Lehrer's and O'Neill's book Black Mass? This excellent book gives a tremendous insight into how Bulger really is, and also points out the fact that a lot of the boston mobsters who turned informers don't want to go into Bulger's territory while wearing wires, because they feel that it's far too high-risk...and dangerous.
Bulger is a very nasty, dangerous piece of work..not supposed to be romanticized..as opposed to say, Henry Hill (the person behind "Goodfellas)...or Tony Sopranos or the many movies based on the lives of the NY crime bosses (Gambino, Colombo etc.) who are not that nasty, dangeous piece of work.....eh???
The truth is, they ALL are nasty, dangerous piece of work. There is nothing good about thugs, mobsters etc. no matter how flashy their lifestyles were or what brand of cubans they smoked. Movies are just that -- they are movies, made for entertainment purposes, that put a glamorous touch on heinous characters that have done heinous things to create some entertainment by blending ruthlessness with some messed up sense of heroism. Must not be confused with real life nor be taken seriously. So don't watch crime movies and then go about taking the high road "oh..they are bad people, they must not be romanticized" ...
Here's another thing, ronyusa: There are plenty of people, even now, who think that Whitey Bulger is/was a big hero.
I watched The Town and The Fighter on the same weekend. For Boston toughs, accents, casting, acting, storyline, The Fighter makes The Town fairly forgettable.
I agree with the OP about the exploitative relationship between Ben Affleck's character and Claire but never felt the audience was expected to interpret it as pure love/romance. It was a heist movie with a-moral characters - pretty standard fare that mostly sustained my interest for the hour or so. I do think Blake Lively gave an unexpectedly strong performance and that John Hamm was distractingly miscast - g-man yes, but from a different era.
I watched The Town and The Fighter on the same weekend. For Boston toughs, accents, casting, acting, storyline, The Fighter makes The Town fairly forgettable.
I agree with the OP about the exploitative relationship between Ben Affleck's character and Claire but never felt the audience was expected to interpret it as pure love/romance. It was a heist movie with a-moral characters - pretty standard fare that mostly sustained my interest for the hour or so. I do think Blake Lively gave an unexpectedly strong performance and that John Hamm was distractingly miscast - g-man yes, but from a different era.
Hi, toosie. Thanks for your input. I never saw The Fighter, but I heard that it was far better than The Town.
Maybe i'll see if I can borrow the DVD of The Fighter from our local public library one of these days, so I can watch it on my computer.
Just one question about The Fighter: I've heard that it was based on a true story, but didn't it take place in Lowell, rather than Boston?
Regarding The Town, I understand that, while it's possible that audiences per se weren't being asked to interpret the exploitive Doug/Claire romance as pure love/romance, most of the people I know, both on and offline, who've seen The Town do interpret it as that.
I had really looked forward to The Town, because, being from the Boston area myself, have always enjoyed seeing movies about Boston. However, I left the movie theatre feeling that I'd been cheated of a potentially really good experience.
Just one question about The Fighter: I've heard that it was based on a true story, but didn't it take place in Lowell, rather than Boston?
I had really looked forward to The Town, because, being from the Boston area myself, have always enjoyed seeing movies about Boston. However, I left the movie theatre feeling that I'd been cheated of a potentially really good experience.
Yes, you're right, The Fighter is based on a true story and mostly set outside Boston in Lowell, Mass. Definitely worth checking it out from the library - Christian Bale is as stellar as ever, Mark Whalberg is impressive and the scenes with his sisters make you think "holy cow that must have been some day at central casting."
Since your from Boston that does explain some as to why you might be a little more sensitive and notice more than most of the audience does. Even I, not being from the area, would never recommend The Town as a representative film.
The Town may have been meant to entertain, and not be a philosophical movie, but there are other heist movies that I've watched, enjoyed and liked far, far better than I liked The Town. Also, RjRobb2, if I don't particularly like or enjoy something, that's my right.
You cannot enjoy something all you want but taking time to write an entire essay on a movie that doesnt deserve that much analysis is a little weird.
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