The Town

Outlaws in Boston

The Town, directed by star Ben Affleck, is an interesting look at likeability gone wrong. The criminal with ethics, i.e., outlaw with a heart, is such a confused contradiction. It's one thing to posit an anti-hero, such as the criminals in Michael Mann's "Heat," another to make the last score the last score, and all the violent prone parties are punished by bloody death. Affleck winds up in Florida. He gets away with it - Yay!- Everyone is the hero of their story.

What Doesn't Kill You stars Mark Ruffalo and Ethan Hawke. Set in Boston, it deals with two lifelong buddies. Unlike the Mean Streets formula, where one tries to save another, who dooms them both, this film has a loyalty above all else which is great to watch, but more f-d up when you see the extended prison beating scene. If anything, it's perceptible more honest in it's allowances. They don't want to drag everyone down with them.  Alas, you get this cowboy sense of justice, and hope it'll be of some help to someone. Kudos to NKOTB Donnie Wahlberg.

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
Is this Irish or just British? It's totally bizarre, in a "enough already" way.  Sometimes the formula works. Others, no, not at all.

COPS
Brooklyn's Finest is a hard movie to crack. On paper in makes sense. On screen, it's hard to buy a man hoping to run off with a hooker. The motivations are so clearly laid out, that there is no moral ambuguity. Rather, the ambiguity is why any of this passes for morality.

WHITE OUT
The cops introduction follows her into her room, disrobing to boyshorts and top, bending over to turn over the shower for full screen gluteus maximus effect, and then bathing (nude) in tasteful steam to cover any whiff of indecency. Pandering on this level was left behind in the 1980s. Shower scenes? Who does that? The rest of the movie fares no better.