The Town! Box Office Update!

The Town has a great cast that stars Ben Affleck (Dare Devil, Good Will Hunting) as Doug MacRay, Jon Hamm (Mad Men, 30 Rock) as FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley, Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Prestige) as Claire Keesey, Jeremy Renner (Hurt Locker, The Avengers) as James Coughlin, and Blake Lively (Accepted, Green Lantern) as Krista Coughlin.

Boston natives and sons of career criminals, Doug MacRay (Affleck) leads a team heavily armed bank robbers, where he has each job meticulously planned out.  Everything is detailed perfectly, down to the minute of the guards routine, the lay of the land, and the technical’s of the security systems.  The movie gets right into the action as team cleans out a local bank in the blue collar neighborhood of Charlestown.  The loose cannon of the group James Coughlin (Renner) takes the bank manager, Claire Kessey (Hall), as a hostage as he hears over the police radio that someone tripped the silent alarm.  Later, after releasing their hostage they find out that she lives in their neighborhood.  Afraid of being identified, something needs to be done.  To stop anymore violence, MacRay decides he should be the one to find out what the bank manager knows. 

A relationship develops between Doug and Claire, as he learns he wants more out of life then one of crime.  With a determine FBI agent (Hamm) closing in on his team, MacRay vows that the next job will be his last.

I am particularly fond of heist movies, as well as anything suspense, and The Town does not disappoint.  It was more than the typical bad guys versus good guys where the bad guy has his redeeming qualities type of film.  The plot wasn’t too deep, but the characters were well developed and the movie was well paced.  You care about each of the characters and stay interested in their story.  I also enjoy the parts of the movie were the audience knows more than the characters which adds to the tension of parts of the story. 

Overall I would give the movie a 4 out of 5.  Very enjoyable movie that has minimal speed bumps and each actor fit their roles perfectly.  I would recommend this movie to most, especially to those who favor these sorts of movies.  Nothing stands out as spectacular about the movie, but nothing really comes up as something that would bump a moviegoer.  As a Mad Men fan, it was nice to see Jon Hamm in a bigger part, he fits well into the strong male role.

The estimations (domestic only) are in:

1. The Town                     $23,800,000 1st week
2. Easy A                         $18,200,000 1st week
3. Devil                             $12,584,000 1st week
4.Resident Evil: Afterlife    $10,100,000 2nd week
5.Alpha and Omega           $9,200,000 1st week

After early exit polls projection were thought The Town would finish around $12-$14 million, but the critics high praise may have done some good.  With a budget of only around $37 million, and a first place finish of almost $24 domestically, The Town is definitely a success.