taking the town

CASE #1

"There are over 300 bank robberies in Boston every year. Most of these professionals live in a 1-square-mile neighbourhood called Charlestown."

Directed by Ben Affleck, this crime thriller shows four highly-armed thieves of Charlestown, a neighbourhood of Boston. The robbery gang includes Doug (Affleck), Jem (Jeremy Renner), Gloansy (Slaine), and Dez (Owen Burke).

It started with the foursome robbing a bank at Cambridge, but due to some circumstances, they took the bank manager, Claire (Rebecca Hall) as hostage and released her unharmed after they successfully escaped. However, they soon realized that Claire lives in Charlestown. Doug follows her and slowly falls for her. On the same time, FBI agent, Adam (Jon Hamm) tries to track them down.

Blake Lively plays Doug's ex-girlfriend, Krista who is also Doug's best buddy, Jem's sister. Krista and Doug has a 19 months-old baby. What a hot mama! But they made her looks like a slut in the movie. :o

The Town is based on Chuck Hogan's novel, "Prince of Thieves". I have yet to read the novel so I'm not sure how much the similarities/differences are. If you ask me how's the movie, I would say that it is too much. There are so many looong conversations. The film is about 153 minutes. Super long because I watched the extended version. The normal one is only 125 minutes. On top of that, the characters are full of "fuck", verbally. Gosh, it will be so much better without the vulgar word. Overall rating: A-

CASE #2

Another film about bank robbery.

The gang is made up of John (Paul Walker), A.J. (Hayden Christensen), Jake (Michael Ealy), Jesse (Chris Brown), the former crew member who is released from prison after 5 years, Ghost (T.I), and the leader Gordon (Idris Elba).

As seasonal thieves, the crew decided to take down two armor cars carrying $20 million in cash. This heist is planned by Ghost and they have only a few days to plot out their strategy before striking.

However, the robbery does not goes well as planned, the "takers" flew the scene with detective Jack (Matt Dillion) and his partner, Eddie (Jay Hernandez) on their trail.

Before I watch the film, I've received some negative reviews about the casts' acting. Honestly, it wasn't that awful. However, I still prefer T.I. as a rapper not a gangsta actor. On the other hand, Chris Brown was just 50-50. There are fast-paced gun battles which are not as thrilling as I thought they would be. Overall rating: B

Note (10-point scale):

10: A+

9: A

8: A-

7: B+

6: B

5: B-

.

.

.

you do the math.