Now here is a film that is trying too hard to be something it’s not. In interviews leading up to it’s release, Ben Affleck (both co-star and directory) said he had heard that his latest film had been mentioned in the same breath as movie greats such as Heat. And while The Town is an enjoyable crime film, it’s not in the same league.

The Town follows a group of bank robbers in a downtrodden suburb of Boston (the only city Affleck seems to know of). The action set pieces, of which there are several spread out across the 125 minutes on show, are all very well made. Perhaps lacking the gritty realism of earlier films, they are still nonetheless enjoyable.

Unfortunately, it’s the interactions between the characters that most lets this film down. Once more returning to Heat, it was the personalities that made it great. The robbers were a team, each with a unique side to themselves. Here though we have two main actors (Affleck and Renner) in a crew of robbers of whom none are distinguishable alongside a no-name, cliche-spewing FBI agent and a romance that seemingly goes nowhere.

This is a film with good intentions and it’s definitely worth seeing. But you only have to go back a few years to something like The Departed to get a proper crime film.

My rating: 7/10