The Town (2010) - Nostalgia Check

This week on Nostalgia Check, we’re checking out The Town (2010) for the very first time.

Ben Affleck directs and stars in this acclaimed crime thriller about a group of Charlestown bank robbers whose lives spiral out of control after a hostage situation leads to an unexpected relationship. 

We discuss the performances, the action, the emotional core of the story, and whether The Town deserves its reputation as one of the best crime dramas of its era.

Does it pass the Nostalgia Check despite being a first-time watch? Tune in to find out

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Welcome back to BJ in the morning, your favorite Dirty Name podcast, where we watch movies that we've never seen before sometimes. How was that intro one? Did that one feel good?

SPEAKER_03 0:23

Excellent.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Number for real. Welcome back to BJ in the morning, your favorite Dirty Name podcast.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

Where we put our nostalgia to the test. First-time watches, rewatches.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

And we find out what holds up. Oh yeah. My name's Brendan. And I'm Juan. And I purposely fucked up that intro. It was not a mistake, whatsoever.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

On purpose.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

On purpose. That's what happens. Every time we mess it up. Is on purpose. It's on purpose. On purpose. Today we're finishing up our two parters of uh 2010. Woo! Again, the year we graduated high school. Woo! What a time to be teenagers. Woo! We had never watched The Town until now. How do you feel about that, man?

SPEAKER_03 1:13

Pretty wild. I feel like I've seen clips of the nun the nun masks. Um but like I definitely have never seen this movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Yeah, either I mean I didn't know what to expect going into this. I had a totally different idea of what this movie was.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

You see a lot of like armored truck heist movies come in and out through the years, and you're like, is just is this just gonna be another one of those movies? And it kind of was. It kind of was, but kind of wasn't at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Yeah, there were some elements that definitely shook it up from the the traditional style, right? Uh, I do wanna I wanna point out that I never watched this movie, but when Grand Theft Auto 5 came out and I played through the story of that in 2013, I thought that game was what this movie was gonna be like because it's kind of the vibe. Three dudes robbing armored trucks and jewelry stores and stuff. So I always thought it was like that, but also I just think anytime you think heist movies, they're always wearing masks, rubber masks covering their faces and everything, and then I would I don't know why I skipped this movie. Yeah, but I think it has something to do with just Ben Affleck. Well, also, I think I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

I couldn't tell you, actually.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

I couldn't tell you, but what I could tell you is that we're at the start of the episode. So if you're here right now and you're enjoying what's going on, if you listen to all our other episodes, leave us a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, wherever you're listening to. And if you want to check us out on any social medias like TikTok or Instagram or Facebook, you can uh go down to the description of the episode down below, and there's like links and everything to you.

SPEAKER_03 3:09

And if you've already left a five-star review on Spotify, you can go ahead and create a new email address, uh, download the Apple Podcast apps and give us a five-star there. You don't if you want. If you want that's a lot of work, dude.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

If you want, I set up a new account for like a Roku for my kids so they don't watch stuff they're not supposed to watch. Took me like three hours.

SPEAKER_03 3:33

Really?

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Setting it up, putting it on the Roku, parental controlling all the stuff. You guys don't have to go through all that.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

I mean, I guess you could use the same email. You could just make an Apple ID. If you want, do all that.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Or what you could do is just listen to us right now talk about 2010's The Town. The town. I think we watched two different versions of this movie. I watched an extended version, which added 30 more minutes to this movie. Really? 30 minutes? 30 minutes. And there's another one that's got like 10 more minutes than that. You watched a theatrical, right? Yeah. I'm curious to what differences there might have been. But I think I was thinking ahead on this one, and I looked up what the differences are, so I have them in some notes, and I'll share them with you as we're going through. But I want to look back into 2010. We did a little bit of this in the last episode. We're in high school, graduating, somewhere around there. This movie comes out. This should have been one of those movies we went and saw. What the fuck were we doing? Because I feel like we missed out on Jeremy Renner a lot in some of these older movies that he's in before he became Hawkeye.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

You know? Yeah. Like, all I can think of is him as Hawkeye, and then we see him pop up in all these other movies, and I'm like, hey, that's that guy from the thing.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Hawkeye. Yeah, say it correctly.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

That's Hawkeye. Alright? But also, this is our second Ben Affleck movie.

SPEAKER_05 5:19

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

The last time we saw him was in The Last Duel. He was a side character, though, kind of. He he was. Yeah, not the main guy. He's the main guy in this. He also directed this movie and was one of the writers. So it it very much just felt like Ben Affleck movie.

SPEAKER_03 5:37

Yeah. While watching this though, I was like, Ben Affleck's pretty good. Yeah. He's pretty good. Yeah. I mean, there's a reason why he's Ben Affleck, but I've I think Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are the are the actors that will just do anything they like. You know? Yeah. So I think that's why a lot of people kind of don't think of Ben Affleck as a good actor because he does movies where he's not a good actor. I feel like on purpose. You know? He's like he does some not a questionable movie.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

It's like the first stage of Adam Sandler. Now that Adam Sandler is older and just has money, he just goes, We're gonna make a movie about dudes hanging out at a water park. Right. And it's gonna make a billion dollars. But I just want to go on vacations with my friends.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

And then I'm gonna make Jack and Jill. I'm gonna play both of them because Eddie Murphy did it once.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

But it's gonna suck and no one's gonna want to watch it. Uh but then I'm gonna make another movie with Drew Barrymore because everyone liked the first one.

SPEAKER_03 6:45

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

And Ben Avlex over here, like, I could just make a fucking heist movie that's just like every other fucking heist movie, but make it in Boston.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Yeah. Boston. Boston. Yeah. Are you a co-op? I'm a co-op. Are you a co-op? Yeah, we're in a heist.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

We're dressed like co-ops. Spoiler. Let's get into some details from this movie. What do you say? Let's do it. The town came out 2010. Rated R. I want to know how rated R your version was compared to my version. Uh there was a lot of cussing. There was lots of boobs. Lots of boobs? In the strip scene, the strip club scene. Did you see that scene? I saw one pair of boobs. There was a lot in this the version I saw. Uh-huh. And they're doing drugs off of the strippers. They're putting bills in crevices.

SPEAKER_03 7:37

Huh. Did not see that.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

That's about the time where I was like, we're probably watching two very different movies. There are some scenes that I'm gonna bring up when we get into it that I think someone fucked up. Really? Yeah, but we'll get to it. Uh two hour and five minute runtime in the version that you watched. How'd that feel? How'd your pacing feel on that?

SPEAKER_03 7:59

It was okay. It actually felt very rushed.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Oh yeah?

SPEAKER_03 8:03

Yeah. It felt um like we had the beginning, we have some action scenes, uh, we don't really have very much character development. Except for in uh Ben Affleck's, you know, wanting to wanting a change of pace with his life. Okay. Um but the whole movie as a whole just felt rushed. It did at times, yeah. Just almost like, yeah, we're we're done now. And I was like, we're done now. Mm-hmm. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Oh, oh, we're not done now. Right. Oh, we're doing another one now.

SPEAKER_03 8:47

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Oh, now we're done.

SPEAKER_03 8:49

We're done now.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Oh, wait, one more, but you're not even gonna know what the plan is until we start doing it, and you're like, what the fuck? And we're done now. And now we're actually done because everyone's dead. Yeah. Uh the the version I watched was 150 minutes long. So two hours, 40 minutes. Wow. Uh, there's a a couple things, big changes, but we'll uh we'll get into that. The biggest difference that it says that there is between the two versions we watch, we'll just get this out of the way now, um, without spoilers, is there's more character development between um Doug and Claire's romance. So there's a couple extra dates thrown in there, and then Doug's relationship with Krista, played by Blake Lively. There's a couple more scenes with her thrown in there. So those are some of the big ones. There's also more FBI procedures, so there's a lot more John Ham going through different different sides of the investigation that I think you might have missed out on. And then the ending is a little bit different, but there's a deleted character and investigation that leads up to the end of the movie.

SPEAKER_05 9:55

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

So, but the ending's the same. Yeah. And we'll get to the ending when we get through that. So those are the differences. We'll talk about it. I might say something that you have no fucking idea what I'm talking about. Yeah. So let's get into the tagline of this movie. A proficient group of thieves rob a bank and hold the manager hostage. Things begin to get complicated when one of the crew members falls in love with her. The bank manager.

SPEAKER_03 10:21

Big mistake.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Big mistake. Classic tale. Romeo and Juliet, two sides of the wall. You can't be in love with her. Yes, I can. We've seen this shit before. Yes, I can. This is Romeo and Juliet with heists, yeah, and Jeremy Renner. And Boston accents. Thick ass Boston accents. 7.5 on IMDb. With a 74 meta score. Top cast, you got Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, John Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, George Carroll, and um gosh, this guy's name. Pete Postelwaite. He plays Fergie.

SPEAKER_03 11:08

I um Chris Krug's on this.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Directed by Ben Affleck. Writers on this, Peter Craig, Ben Affleck, and Aaron Stockard, based on the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan. We know Ben Affleck for a million things. Peter Craig, on the other hand, has written movies like Top Gun Maverick, The Batman, Dope Thief, Gladiator 2, The Unforgivable, things like that. Bad Boys for Life. Aaron Stockard. We know him from Gone Baby Gone, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Goodwill Hunting. He was more like additional writers and production assistants on those. 7.5 on IMDB. Some of these reviews are pretty fun. Are you ready for this? So this one's from September 18th, 2010, 9 out of 10. I'll see you again. I was wrong about Ben Affleck. I never believed that Affleck was ever a star. I never saw him as a director type. I do admit I was wrong though. Ben Affleck was truly incredible as Doug McCray. I've never seen him work his acting at such a high level. As far as the plot of the film goes, it's very engaging. The trailer doesn't give this film justice as it's very intense and romantic at times. Jeremy Renner is quite intimidating, and Blake Lively is sexy. Ben Affleck is gripping and the supporting cast is incredibly powerful. I think the movie was powerful and not at all predictable. I couldn't wait to see what would happen if Doug would get away. It's such a greatly crafted movie, from writing to acting. This film is wickedly outstanding. How about a six out of ten? Okay. The town is a generic crime thriller that offers nothing more than two hours of average entertainment. This one's from October of 2010. I react with some measure of disappointment to Ben Affleck's newest feature, The Town, starring himself, Jeremy Renner, and Rebecca Hall. This crime heist thriller is set in Charlestown, Boston, where every other day there seems to be an armed robbery happening. Produced by Graham King, who won Best Picture for Scorsese's The Departed, which is also set in Boston. The town is a generic crime thriller that offers nothing more than two hours of average entertainment. Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Okay, pretty hosh over there. Pretty hush. One out of ten. One out of ten.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Whoa. From October 2010. Typically, movies do not make enough of an impact on me that I feel I need to comment. The town, however, is certainly one of those movies. How a movie like this can be made with it without a ton of money being exchanged between the writers of the original work and the plagiarists who reconstituted a couple of old scripts is beyond me. The movie simply combined the plots of two previous made Hollywood movies entitled Heat and Point Break, packaged it in a different city, Boston Ceta, LA, and added the dreadful acting and directing of Ben Affleck. How about an 8 out of 10 roll to finish this uh round of IMDB reviews? You ready? Great performances all around and directing made this well worth watching. This one's from 2011. Despite not having seen Gone Baby Gone, I've heard a lot of good things about Ben Affleck's switch to directing, so I decided to watch The Town, which put simply is about a band of robbers. But to expand on that, the film is also about the leader of the group played by Ben Affleck. When watching the trailer, it's easy to draw comparisons to Heat and the Departed, but this is different. Many films about crime make the audience side either with the police or the criminals, yet the town allows the audience to see people from both sides of the law fairly. John Hamm plays an honest working FBI officer while Ben Affleck plays a criminal. The film is shot predominantly from the criminal's perspective, therefore the audience feels the same sense of urgency they do, but we don't want to see them gun down the FBI and police let them get away with their crimes. It is difficult, it's a difficult challenge for the director to deal with, but he does it well, and the end result is very good. How are we feeling about that? Pretty good? Yeah. Some some good reviews, some bad reviews, huh?

SPEAKER_03 15:32

Some some hash ones in there.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Some difficult ones to hear. Well, you want to hear some from uh letterboxed?

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Yes, of course I do. 3.7 on the letterbox. Out of five? Out of five. Okay. Some reviews here. Whose car are we gonna take? That's four stars for you. Uh three stars. The cop pretending not to see them was real as fuck. Three and a half stars. A guy named Fergie gets told to remember who clipped your nuts for you before he's shot in the balls. Capable movie core, but as far as Michael Mann fanatic fan fakes go, there are certainly worse things out there. Two stars. This feels like the type of movie that would play on FX at like 2 p.m. on a Friday or something. Four stars, the last one. The town feels as if Ben Affleck watched the opening scene from The Dark Knight and asked himself, would this work as a till hour movie? The answer is yes.

SPEAKER_05 16:29

Yes, it does.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

And those are your reviews, the user reviews, the watcher reviews of The Town. Mm-hmm. Pretty solid reviews over there. Not bad, not bad. But Juan, how about we get to the details of this movie? Let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

Oh no, not again.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Doug McCray leads a crew of bank robbers from Charlestown, Boston, a neighborhood known for producing career criminals. His crew includes his reckless best friend Jem. Or Jim. Jim. Which one is it? It's whatever one. They both work. During the bank robbery, the crew briefly kidnaps the bank manager, Claire, before releasing her unharmed. The opening of this movie is straight away just gets into the action.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

The bank heist, right? And it's pretty terrifying, uh, the mask they they wear. It's pretty scary. Yeah, kind of unique. They're very aggressive. Which which I feel like they should be, but I I've seen a lot of bank robberies in person in my lifetime, as far as with your own eyes in a movie. Um and they're not like that. They're not that aggressive, which I liked. I liked that realistically, it would probably be more scary instead of like Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

This is a stick-up! Put 'em up. Put your hands up. Put the money in the bag. Put the money out of the back. Get your head out over the counter.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

I don't know. What accent were you going to know? And we went southern real time. See? See. So they they rob this bank and they, for some reason, Jem uh beats the shit out of the assistant manager, who is an older guy than the the girl Claire, who is sitting there without her shoes on. But they beat the shit out of that guy because they think he put the alarm on. So they kidnap her, take her ID, blindfold her driver around, and send her off to walk, and they tell her to walk until your feet hit the water, and they leave her to be alive. But they're like, we know where you live, so don't squeal. But she also saw a tattoo on the back of one of them's necks. And she recognized that it's one of the fighting Irish tattoos. And we see that Jem has that same tattoo on the back of his neck. So he gets paranoid as fuck. All like pretty quick that she's gonna go to the cops, Gem. And he's like, I'll go take her, I'll go take her out of the equation. And Ben Affleck, uh Doug, is like, no, I got this. And immediately meets up with her and falls in love with her right then and there. Right away. Immediately he he's there's no hesitation, there's no scene of him like, I shouldn't have feelings for her because I kidnapped her and uh should be killing her.

SPEAKER_03 19:46

At first, I thought he was just going with the flow to kind of make sure she wasn't gonna say nothing. How are you gonna keep eye how how better to keep eyes on someone than banging them? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 19:59

I think she says that too later on.

SPEAKER_03 20:01

So I thought it was just all a part of the plan. I thought it was just gonna be this evil guy who just at the end of the day is gonna say, you know what, this was not real.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

F you but no, he legitimately falls in love with her very quickly at the laundromat.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

One thing I don't like, and it might be in in your version and not mine. They did nothing with the tattoo.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Until later.

SPEAKER_03 20:28

No, they did nothing with the tattoo until they were on the the date and he covers it. Oh no, that's the only thing. That's the only time. Yeah. I was hoping for her to like maybe just see it.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

No, she mentions it to him earlier on in the movie, and then he remembers and holds on to it for that date that they have that looks like the ending of uh the Dark.

SPEAKER_03 20:48

I was hoping they're gonna get caught like that. Yeah. Her she saw the tattoo on his neck, and then she's just devastated, you know, after that point. But let's uh continue with the with the with the plot in this movie.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

The cops get involved, and we're introduced to John Ham's character. Uh what's his name? Um I should have had this. Adam Frawley. He uh he gets involved and he also immediately falls in love with Claire. Yeah. Like it's a little more subtle until it's not.

SPEAKER_04 21:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Cause at first it seems like he's just trying to be there for her and get all the details and everything. He starts making jokes that he's gotta be around, like not really jokes, but like jabs. He's gotta be around her so they can keep eyes on her because they think that she might be in on it, which is fucking crazy, honestly. Um, because anytime you see her reacting to like when they're in the launch and she sees the blood splatter on her shirt, she's really great at acting like full of panic and fear. Yeah, you can see her shaking and traumatized. It's it's crazy. She's really great at that. But he begins, Adam, the FBI guy, John Hamm, begins snooping around and trying to get close to her at the same time that Doug is, but Doug seems to have an upper hand. Um Claire doesn't know Doug was one of the mass robbers at all, and Doug's making sure that she doesn't.

SPEAKER_03 22:20

Even though she said, if I heard their voice, I'm sure I could pick him out. And he's like, Yeah, I don't think you would.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

He says a lot of lines to her throughout the entire movie where you're like, that's not what an innocent guy would say. But since she doesn't suspect him whatsoever, he gets away with it. Like, you fucking dumbass dude. Um, so FBI agent guy John Ham Adam begins closing in on the crew and interviewing Claire and investigating a string of robberies, trying to piece them all together, see how they all fit together. Doug falls even harder. They go on a date. I don't know if this scene was in, they go on a date on a boat.

SPEAKER_05 23:02

No.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Okay, this is where it gets fucked up. They're on this date and they're going around like it's dark outside, it's nighttime. They're going on a date, they uh they go walking around, talking, getting to know each other and everything after the laundromat. Um and he ends up breaking into a random dude's boat and saying it's his friends, and they sit on the boat and talk. And this is when she asks about his mom and his dad. So he gives the whole backstory and it's really brief, but she asks specifically about his parents and has he ever has he lived in Charlestown his whole life and everything like that, and gives the whole spiel about my dad has a place out in the suburbs, uh, my mom's gone, she's I haven't seen her, blah blah blah. But then later on, they have the same exact conversation in the garden. So tell me about your parents. What do they do? I'm like, wait a second, you've already that's the one that I saw. Yeah, but they're both in the extended version. Both of them.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

So she's listening to this conversation twice.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

She asks twice in the extended, tell me about your parents. Did you always live here? Like Mr. Affleck. Mr. Affleck. What the fuck?

SPEAKER_03 24:17

If you're gonna add extended versions, you just don't put in deleted sins.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

One of them, but no, you don't put in deleted sides of the script. Right. Extra it's the you rewrote the scene to be in a different spot after shooting the other one, and you were just like, well, put them both.

SPEAKER_03 24:34

Just so you can see that, oh, he's still a bad guy. He's breaking in the boat and stealing them and shit.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Yeah. Yeah. And they don't get caught. She believes that it's his friend's boat, even though it shows him breaking into the wine, the wine fridge and like breaking a lock off and everything. So yeah, I don't know. It was just funny. It was just funny to me. Uh, Doug wants, after falling for her, so hard, and they're so in love, and they're doing all these dates and everything. Doug wants out of the criminal life, and he starts dreaming of leaving Boston with Claire, but he's trapped by his loyalty to Jam and pressured by local crime boss Fergie, who's a flower shop guy with another guy, and they sell drugs, I think.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

They sell drugs and they set up heists.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

Yeah. He's the guy in the chair.

SPEAKER_03 25:27

He's the guy.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

But he owns the chair. He's the guy. He's the guy. Doug discovers the truth about his mother, learning Fergie was involved in her disappearance and likely had her killed because she became an informant. I didn't get any of that. No. No. When did that happen?

SPEAKER_03 25:48

I n I picked up at at the end when Fergie reveals that she was killed. Yeah. She killed herself because of him. Um I didn't pick up on her being an informant.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

Me neither. But the notes said it happened. So it happened. Right. I'm not sure when. Right. But it said it in the plot. Right. But they do another heist. They have another heist because this is when Doug's like, this is my last one, and I'm done. And this is the nuns one. So they do the nun heist where they're dressed as nuns. Pretty badass. This whole this whole scene where they get in there, they they take over the truck, they they were all like, we don't need to, we shouldn't do this one because there's a guy in the armored truck who's like kind of trying to be Rambo or whatever.

SPEAKER_05 26:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

And I don't see that guy. You know what I mean? The guy who gets out of the van, the the guard guy, doesn't really feel like the guy they're scared of. He definitely fucks up.

SPEAKER_03 26:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

He definitely tries to be a hero, but he's not this guy that I would have been concerned about if I was in their place. But the chase scene through all the alleyways with the minivan is really chaotic in the best way.

SPEAKER_03 27:13

That's very good.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

I was having so much fun in this scene, and the way they shoot them driving up slowly in the nun masks with their fucking assault rifles, and they're passing people, and the little kid sees them, and then them driving through all fast after they robbed the truck. Just everything that happens in this sequence is the best part of this movie. It's the best part of the movie. I love seeing the minivan flipping around corners, going down alleyways.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

And when you see when you see them get stopped in that alleyway with the Jeep, I did not know that was the switch car. I had no idea. I thought they were fucked.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

I did too. And for a second.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

But they even say get to the switch, you know? And you're like, what does that mean?

SPEAKER_03 27:58

And then the Jeep stops and you're like, holy shit. Yeah, because Don Ham is here.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Yeah. But I thought the switch was the bridge. Uh uh. Because they were they had just learned that they're trying to close the bridge. And I thought the switch was something to do with the bridge, and then they switch cars. I'm like, fucking, you had me. There it is. You had me there for a second, Mr. Affleck. Mr. Fleck. The Fleck, Ben Fleck. So yeah, the nun scene is is probably my favorite. And they all get to the other side of the bridge. The cops are too late. And they I love that they just pull off random side street. And they all get out of the car holding their guns and the sacks of money, and there's a cop sitting there. And he just stares and realizes he does not want that fucking heat. And I love that Jeremy, I think it was Jeremy Renner who says he doesn't want to be on the wall of the VFW. I'm like, smart. That guy, that cop had nothing.

SPEAKER_03 28:54

Yeah, he literally turned his head.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

He turned his head because he saw nothing. And I I laughed a little bit because I thought it was really fucking funny. And then what the fuck happens in this movie? We meet Blake Lively's character. She's a druggie. The kid might be Ben Affleck's kid, but he swears that it's not his kid. But he treats that kid like it's his kid.

SPEAKER_03 29:16

Yeah, I mean, with her character, like I just didn't really care. Like her character was there to give some information about Doug.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

She passes so for the crime guy, Fergie, she passes information between the crew and him when they're trying to not be seen together. And she goes and sets up like hotels and getaway places.

SPEAKER_03 29:43

See, I never saw that she does any of that.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

Yeah, so that's her job. But anytime before then, she just is getting fucking screwed over by the FBI guy because fucking John Hamm comes into the bar. Did you see that part? Yeah. And he manipulates the fuck out of her.

SPEAKER_03 30:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

And he's a creep.

SPEAKER_03 30:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

He's a creep. I don't think I think he's a creep. I think he flashes his badge to get girls.

SPEAKER_04 30:10

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

But not Blake Lively, she saw right through that shit. I don't I don't know. Then we get to the final heist. Doug's pissed. He doesn't want anything to do with it. So he goes to Fergie and the other guy, and he's like, I'm done. I'm not doing this one for you. And that's where Fergie tells him all about how I basically uh casteurized your dad with chemicals. And he's the reason, or Fergie's the reason his dad's in jail and that his mom's dead.

SPEAKER_03 30:40

Right.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

So Ben Affleck's like, okay, fine. I'll do this as long as Claire doesn't get hurt, and as long as after this I'm done. And the Fergie dude's like, fuck you, basically. You work for me, I own you. This town is my town. And then Ben Affleck's like, if anything happens to her, I'm coming back and I'm killing you fucking both.

SPEAKER_04 31:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

And then he goes and does the heist. They don't show any planning for this except for them taking showers and cleaning guns, right? Or was that for the nuns?

SPEAKER_03 31:09

That was for the for the nuns. For this one, he they do like a they go to the baseball game. Yeah, but before that, Fergie is talking and he's giving them the maps and all that, and giving them the you're gonna do this, you're gonna do that, you're gonna get to this secret room, and you're gonna find three million dollars. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

I just I felt like it just went real fast, and I had no idea what their plan was. And then they show up, they go to the baseball game, and there was no real plan. They're just at the baseball game, and then later on they go back and they're dressed as cops and they walk in there, and that's when the last heist starts. And Doug pissed off um Blake Lively, Ben Affleck pissed off Blake Lively, said, You're a drug addict, and I don't want you around anymore, and I'm not leaving town with you, I'm going with someone else. She loses her shit, tells John Hamm. John Ham's like, get everyone over to the stadium, because she spills all the beans so she can keep her hit kid. Because John Ham goes, You got drugs in you and alcohol, and you're driving with a kid. I'm gonna take her to CPS and you're never gonna see your kid again, unless you tell me everything. And she spills immediately. She's done. She doesn't want to go to jail. She wants to be with her kid, I guess. She doesn't seem like a good mom. No, she's drugged up like crazy. I would rap for my kid too. All right. Yeah. Alright. So they they go into they get into the stadium and they they're dressed as cops, they go all the way up, and there's this standoff in the hallway with these like security guys. And I think it was really funny, like the security guys, like, can you even see? Because they're both wearing thick aviator glasses, yeah, trying to blend in. And one of the security guards pulls the gun, and that's what triggers all the other guys to be like, Never mind, they're actual cops. Why would you why would you pull a gun? So they all fall for the lie because it's Doug and Jem dressed as cops.

SPEAKER_03 33:09

Yeah, I thought it was strange that they they pulled the gun, uh, the the security security guards, and then they all have like a standoff with all their guns, and they immediately get down on the ground. Yeah, I was like, they changed their mind very fast. Why? Because they have guns?

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:28

You have guns too, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

But they think they're cops, yeah. So one guy pulls a gun on a cop, you're going to jail, everyone else is going to jail. They don't know that they're not actually cops. Sure. They get in this room, they start stealing all the money, and then they're trying to escape, and they change into these EMS clothes, they're all gonna escape. But Doug's spidey sense goes off. Yeah. He just has a feeling that something's wrong and starts looking around. Mm-hmm. And he sees a guy. And he sees he doesn't see the guy. Oh. He looks out the window. Jem sees the guy. Jem sees the guy hiding behind the trash can. It's a SWAT guy. Doug looks outside the window, and there's a hundred plus officers waiting outside. Right outside the door they're trying to escape in. Out of. And this is when we get the final standoff. There's lots of gun shooting. Lots of lots of two two guys die right at the beginning. Yeah. A cop and then one of the high gentlemen.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

Shot in the head.

SPEAKER_01 34:29

Um that was brutal.

SPEAKER_03 34:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:31

It was really, I didn't expect it.

SPEAKER_03 34:33

I wasn't expecting that either.

SPEAKER_01 34:34

They threw the flashbangs in and then he stands up because he's dazed and confused. Good movie. Oh yeah. Um he stands up and gets immediately just shot in the fucking head.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:44

And then sniped the uh the the driver, he's like, I can get away. You guys, they're not looking for for cops. You guys have the con out cop outfits still. You guys can escape. I can take the ambulance out of here, and we can get the hell out. And I'll I'll see you at the switch. And they go, Hell yeah. That guy busts through the door, dead. Immediately dead. He makes it a block, maybe half a block. Yeah. And just gone, wasted. So I don't know why we're laughing. It's just it's not funny. It's funny because he's like, I can bake it, guys. And then he immediately doesn't.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

He just just how fast he doesn't make it is funny.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

Uh he takes a lot of shots, though. He definitely takes a lot of shots. But the other two, Jem and Doug, get back in their cop uniforms, playing playing police officers, comps and robberts here. They, for one, have these huge sacks, duffel bags of money that they're carrying around.

SPEAKER_03 35:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

While dressed as cops, it looks suspicious as fuck. It looks suspicious when they brought the duffel bags in because they were just carrying them over their shoulder and they're empty, but they look full.

SPEAKER_04 35:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

But they carry them out and they split up splitting up. Right? Jem goes one way, Doug goes the other way. And Doug's really good at blending in. I don't know how Jem gets past the like group of everyone outside, but he gets away a little bit, but not before John Ham spots him. John Ham. So they're both outside now. What's his name again? Andy. Um Andy. Uh John. Adam. Adam. Adam. Adam Ham. Uh he spots Jeremy or Jem. Jem. Jemmy Jam Jam Jem.

SPEAKER_03 36:32

Jem Jam Jam Jammy Jem.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

He spots him walking down and he's like, uh-uh, that's sus. Super. He grabs a shotgun and starts chasing him down. He's like, officer, hold up. Officer, hold up. While Doug's watching this from afar, still blending in.

SPEAKER_05 36:47

Right.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

And then Jem spins around, pulls his technology out, and just starts firing. And there's this whole gunfire down this alleyway. John Ham calls back up. I love when they're spinning around the car in the parking lot and he's just shooting, wasting all his fucking bullets. Yeah. Like dumbass dude.

SPEAKER_03 37:06

Yeah. And he's just blind. Blind fired. Shooting his gun and gets his pistol and just starts going.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Well, we're not there yet. We're not there yet. Because he chases him across the street. He's hiding behind a post office box. And that's when he starts blindfiring. He's out of ammo. I fucking love that he grabs just a random drink off the road and takes a sip.

SPEAKER_03 37:30

Drinking it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

Yeah. I'm like, that was someone's lunch, my guy. But he's just like, if I'm gonna go, I'm gonna have a coke in my belly, I guess. Uh, and he he gets shot twice in the face.

SPEAKER_03 37:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

And you see it happen. He falls down, he's dead. Uh, because he basically sacrificed himself for Doug.

SPEAKER_03 37:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

He knew Doug was around, and he stood up with both his empty weapons and basically uh, you know, offed himself because he wasn't going back to jail. He made sure he was never going back to jail. Right. And he did it for Doug. Doug gets in a cop car, still dressed as a cop, and just steals it and drives away.

SPEAKER_03 38:13

I like how John Hamm turns around and it's just like he sees the car leaving. And he's just like. Okay, whatever. Yeah. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

Yep. And then the rest of the movie is John Ham trying to convince Claire, who found out, by the way, we skipped over it, found out that they were the bank robbers from the beginning. She's pissed off.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

She doesn't want anything to do with John Ham told Claire.

SPEAKER_01 38:39

Yeah, because he's jealous as fuck. Right, Adam. Adam told Claire about them being the bank robbers, even though he hasn't proved it yet at that point in time. He hadn't proved it yet.

SPEAKER_03 38:50

He didn't prove it. He had suspicions. Trying to get her to dislike to narc. To narc. To narc.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

No, no, yeah, but they use her. They use her as bait to get him. He definitely quickly shows that he was one of the robbers to everyone because they're listening to everything. But at the end of the movie, Doug's escaped, and John Adam is in the apartment of Claire again with 20 cops, and they're all listening to her phone call while she's trying to convince Doug to come over.

SPEAKER_04 39:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

But earlier in the movie, when they when they fucked.

SPEAKER_02 39:30

Right.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

Doug was all worried because he's like, uh, my uncle lives right there or whatever, right? Uh he can see right in here, so we should go to the bedroom. She thinks it's a lie. She doesn't, I don't think she remembers that he said that. But he's in that apartment at the end watching and sees all the cops, and he knows that she's lying to him until the end of the phone call. Yeah. When she brings up something she said earlier in the movie about how her brother died on a sunny day, so now sunny days remind her of death.

SPEAKER_05 40:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:00

And she says at the end of the phone call, if you come over here, it'll be like my sunny days. And that's when he realizes that she's forgiven him. She wants to be with him. Don't come over here. And it means don't fucking come over here. She doesn't know that he's he's seeing all this. Right. So he takes the hint, dresses up as like a bus driver or something. Uh-huh. Buries money in the garden where she's been working with the boys and girls club with a tangerine. What's with the tangerine? Because tangerine, Florida is where his grandma lived. And he said, I'll live in any city named after a food. But he specifically mentioned tangerine, Florida. So he leaves that in there so she knows where he went.

SPEAKER_03 40:46

Right.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

Without saying, I'm going to Tangerine, Florida, in a note or something, you know? Um, he leaves her all the money and he goes to Florida, escapes the city on a train, and before he left, he left a note on John Ham's car that says, Go fuck yourself.

SPEAKER_03 41:04

Fuck you, bitch. Um, I wish I would have seen a happy ending with the two of them.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

I think it's implied that it happened. She has all the money. I think she's gonna go.

SPEAKER_03 41:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

She quit her job. She's volunteering full-time. Because she's got a cushion. And now she has all the bank robbery money.

SPEAKER_03 41:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:25

And she didn't even rob the bank.

SPEAKER_03 41:26

Right. Good for her. What a good life. What if she never went? Just kept the money and just fucked off. Thanks, Doug.

SPEAKER_01 41:34

Thanks, Dougie. Dougie. So this movie ends pretty pretty much there. Pretty much.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

You know what I mean? Like, like I said, I wish I saw like a happy ending, or I wish I saw maybe one more like difficulty getting out of town, you know?

SPEAKER_01 41:53

But it's just kind of over. Yeah, he just walks past all the cops and they're like, hey, stay off the road. He's like, I'm just going to work. Go to work, buddy. And he just walks down to the train station and leaves. It's over. And it's over. Apparently, the other extended version has the non-happy ending. Oh. That's more close to the book. Oh. We didn't mention that he killed Fergie and the other guy. Oh, he does right. He does that. He shoots him in the in the balls because he said he was gonna do it to him. Uh-huh. But he goes back, kills them both because he said he was gonna.

SPEAKER_03 42:28

Well, he said if Claire got hurt, but then now the rest of his family is dead.

SPEAKER_01 42:34

Yeah, his whole crew is dead.

SPEAKER_03 42:35

His crew is dead. Why not? He wants out.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:39

So he doesn't have the guilt of Jem stopping him from leaving.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

But apparently in the uh in the other ending, they ambush him and kill him. What? Yeah. That's what the internet said. That's late. That's what the internet said. I don't want to see that. Yeah, that we didn't. We didn't. I don't want to see that. I don't want to see that. So that's the end of the the town. Yeah. Three heists. Lots of drama. Jeremy Renner's a fucking force to be reckoned with in this movie. I think he is maybe the best part of this movie.

SPEAKER_04 43:13

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

He is dangerous. He's angry as hell. He is he's addicted to this to this life. Like whole wholeheartedly. He all he wants to do is Rob Banks the rest of his life. You can tell. He doesn't want to retire. He doesn't want to get out of the game. None of that. He's just ready to do this the rest of his life. And I think he's probably one of the best parts of the movie.

SPEAKER_03 43:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

I I think the movie was fun. It was a good time. I was engaged. I kind of wish I watched the theatrical version because that extra 40 minutes, I fucking felt it, man. There's some parts in there. I'm like, what does this have to do with anything? And the scene where they talk about the parents twice pissed me the fuck off.

SPEAKER_03 43:58

It's so Like unnecessary.

SPEAKER_01 44:01

Honestly. And I don't know what else could have changed between the two versions you and I watched. I I have an idea of where I want to rate this movie. I have an idea of my feelings of this movie. Are you ready to do that? I'm ready. All right. After watching this movie, I went and did a bunch of errands before we shot the podcast. I didn't think about this movie one time. While watching this movie, I was like, fuck, this is great. But the the less that I was solely divide giving my attention to this movie and I was starting dividing my attention to millions of other things, the less I thought about this movie. The part that sticks in my head is the nun heist because I think it's the most entertaining. I I don't like the heist at the end of the movie whatsoever. I think it's too complicated. Yeah. There's too many steps, too many variables means that it's too difficult. It's too easy to mess up and they mess it up bad. I think Jeremy Renner is amazing in this role. His character, though, pisses me the fuck off because he doesn't know when to stop. And he, I think he is the reason he is dead alone. I think if he didn't shoot at that guy in the hallway, like underneath the stadium, they might have gotten away a little better. If he would have just paused and waited.

SPEAKER_05 45:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:20

Ben Affleck is boring as fuck. I I don't think that I don't think it makes a good character or a relationship between two characters. If your whole thing is I had a fucked up past, and now I have to be this thing that I didn't think I would have to be. And then he gets in a relationship with Claire, and I feel like their relationship is built on whose past is more fucked up.

SPEAKER_03 45:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:49

That that like trauma bonding's great and all. It's cool to like have that with other people, but I don't feel like I felt their relationship right at the start, but then as time grew on, I was like, this feels forced. And when she gave up on it, I felt like he didn't really do much to earn her trust back. Yeah. And then she just was like, actually, but dad, I love him just randomly, you know.

SPEAKER_04 46:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:15

Um, John Hamm is a creep, but I think he uh does this part really well. The uh the cinematography, again, I I could not tell if this was shot on film or not. There were some parts where there was film grain. I don't think it was, but uh some of the direction, like the the composition of the shots in the the cinematography, I think fit really well for what was going on in the scene. I saw everything I needed to see, nothing was left out of frame. There was no sh real shaky cameras during fights or or the gun fights or anything like that. And if there was, I didn't recognize them, I didn't notice them, which means they were perfectly done. Yeah, so I think overall, Ben Affleck did a great job directing. I think his character is a little flat. I think Claire might be a little flat. Blake Lively didn't need to fucking be in this movie. Her character pissed me off the entire time. It could have just been another dude, but I I but like also I just think her character was so like gross that I didn't want to see her at all, you know? Yeah, she did she did fine for what she was trying to do, but the character itself sucked. She also sucks.

SPEAKER_03 47:24

Um, Ben Affleck Affleck did okay though. Yeah, I'm gonna get to that.

SPEAKER_01 47:30

Better than the last duel.

SPEAKER_03 47:32

Right.

SPEAKER_01 47:33

This is the type of movie he should be in. I don't I can't tell you how many other Ben Affleck movies I've seen. You know, I've seen Daredevil and I've seen Goodwill Hunting and stuff like that, but like this era of him, like I I couldn't tell you if I've seen any other Ben Affleck movies. Yeah. Uh Mall Rats.

SPEAKER_03 47:55

Uh Dogma.

SPEAKER_01 47:56

Dogma. Those types, all the Kevin Smith movies. Like, I've seen all those, but Ben Affleck directing, I I haven't seen a lot of those. Right. When I think about this movie, I don't think it passes the nostalgia test. I think the nun scene stands out a lot, and you'll go, this movie fucking rocks because the nun heist.

SPEAKER_03 48:19

You watch that movie, like you would watch that movie again to see that scene again.

SPEAKER_01 48:23

Yeah, and so I think it's fully nostalgia because of that scene. The rest of the movie kind of fell flat for me, but it still was a fun watch. I want to watch the theatrical cut, though. I think I might enjoy it a little bit better, but I gave it a six.

SPEAKER_03 48:41

That's funny because I gave it a six as well. Shit. I gave it a six because the movie I think Ben Affleck did fine. Okay. I think the the character was uh a writing issue as far as the plot and not necessarily the character. Um but I said at the beginning this movie was rushed. It was like boom, bank heist, boom, following the girl, boom, uh they're fucking uh yeah, F in. Boom, uh sorry, armored vehicle heist, and then the movie is over with the final heist, and it's over. Um there was no character development for the crew, not even for Ben Afflex. Yeah, I don't feel like you you get to know them at all. You get to know them in the cop uh briefing, which sound which seems lazy to me. Yeah. So I'm like, you threw that in there because yeah, we need to know who these guys are, but you're just gonna do it quickly in a cop uh in a debriefing with your with your fellow cops and yeah, because I didn't feel anything when that when either one of those dudes died.

SPEAKER_01 50:03

Yeah. I was I wasn't sad about it. Yeah, I just was like, okay, sucks. Right. I kind of felt something when Jem died, but also I was like, he did it to himself. He wasn't gonna get away, but he did it to himself. Yeah, there was no you didn't have time to grab onto these characters whatsoever. Right.

SPEAKER_03 50:23

So yeah, that my my ratings of six. Um could have been a six point five for the action, but then again, like the bank heights wasn't that action-packed, and the last scene wasn't really that much action-packed, anyways. I felt like in that scene they stepped it up with the kills and the people getting shot in the face. Yeah. But other than that, there was nothing really spectacular about it. Um yeah, that's my score.

SPEAKER_01 51:00

Does it pass the nostalgia test?

SPEAKER_03 51:03

I mean no?

SPEAKER_01 51:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:06

Yeah, I say no.

SPEAKER_01 51:08

Yeah, it like I think you know, we said it. It's nostalgia for that scene.

SPEAKER_03 51:11

If I were to ever talk about this movie, it's gonna be like you said, the armored vehicle, non-masked scene.

SPEAKER_01 51:18

Yeah, because it's scary. Yeah, it honestly felt scary.

SPEAKER_03 51:21

I wish we had more of that.

SPEAKER_01 51:22

I do, I wish there was more of the heist stuff, but there's other movies for that, right? Right. Um, would you recommend this to someone who's never seen it? Sure. Yeah, I think I would. Yeah, it's not a bad movie. Some people are gonna love this shit. I mean, if people like heist movies, yeah, and if you like a thick, heavy, fucking Boston accent, you're gonna love this movie. You're gonna change your shorts. Uh so Juan, Brendan. We both gave that movie a six. But it's time for the episode to come to an end. But before we do that, we need to spin the wheel for next week. We gotta spin the wheel. And while we're spinning the wheel, you wanna you wanna take a guess what we might land on?

SPEAKER_03 52:08

Um, I I'm gonna say, and I'm I'm just gonna go 2013.

SPEAKER_01 52:16

2013?

SPEAKER_00 52:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:17

Is there a specific movie you want to see? Or you just okay. Do you wanna tell me or no?

SPEAKER_03 52:22

The internship came out in 2013. We talked about it in the social network.

SPEAKER_01 52:27

Yeah, I looked it up. I wouldn't mind maybe in '91, because we haven't been there yet.

SPEAKER_04 52:32

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 52:33

And it's newly added.

SPEAKER_04 52:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:35

I just don't want another repeat. So let's spin this friggin' wheel. You ready? Okay. Three, two, one. Spinning. Ooh, here we go. Big money, big money, big money. Spinning. Big money.

SPEAKER_00 52:48

96. 96. Hell yeah. That's fun.

SPEAKER_01 52:53

Have we done 96 yet? No, we haven't. We did 95. Uh-huh. We've done 92. Uh-huh. Not 96. We did 99. We did do 99, yeah. Alright. Are you ready? I'm ready. Number one. This is based on popularity. Number one, Independence Day. Oh. We just missed 4th of July for this to be fucking perfect.

SPEAKER_04 53:17

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 53:18

But Independence Day. Um, Primal Fear. Okay. Fargo. Have you seen Fargo? No. Me neither. I've heard it's good. Scream. Uh. We can't do that though. Train spotting? Uh-huh. Jerry Maguire. Okay. Ooh, that thing you do? Have you seen that? Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks' directorial debut. I have not. Oh god, of course. Of course. Matilda? I've seen that. Phenomenon. Romeo plus Juliet. Mars attacks. Seen that. Mission Impossible. Seen that. Happy Gilmore. Seen it. Space Jam.

SPEAKER_03 53:57

Oh, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 53:59

Cable Guy. Seen it. Don't be a menace. Fuck, dude. We've seen a lot of movies from '96. Yeah. What are we watching next week, though? The cable guy. The cable guy sounds fun. You want to watch the cable guy next week? Let's watch the cable guy. We're gonna watch the cable guy next week.

SPEAKER_03 54:15

I always love watching Space Jam, but I've seen that movie more times than I've seen Toy Story.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

Yeah. So maybe because I feel like The Cable Guy is one of those movies that we watched a lot together, or at least once, twice. And anytime we think about medieval times, we do the thing. This is like when Spotify. Right. So I think we should watch it because I know it's not everyone's cup of tea when it comes to Jim Carrey movies, but I'm excited because I remember loving this movie. We got Jack Black, Matthew Broderick. I think it's a solid movie. Yeah, so join us next week. We're gonna watch The Cable Guy from 1996. And if you made it this far in the episode, please leave us a five-star review on Apple or Spotify. Or just a rating. You don't even have to leave a review. Just do the stars. We don't even need the full rating. Yeah. Or review, just the rating. And if you want to follow us on any social medias, go down to the description down below. It's all there. There's a link. Find us there. Send us some fan mail, TikTok, YouTube, send us comments, all that stuff. We would really appreciate it. And it would uh it would be really awesome. Or we're gonna get obsessed, like Jim Carrey and the cable guy, with you. And we'll just come over whenever we want and say that we're best friends. And our uh drink all your beer. Drink all your beer and give you stolen karaoke equipment.

SPEAKER_03 55:39

Better not have any chips in that house because they're gone.

SPEAKER_01 55:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:42

I love chips. Love them.

SPEAKER_01 55:45

Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of BJ in the morning. My name is Brendan. And I'm Juan. And we'll talk to you next time.