Weekend Movie Forecast: The Town Vs. Easy A

Ben Affleck takes his second shot at directing an all-star cast including Mad Men's Jon Hamm, The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner, and Gossip Girl's Blake Lively in a Bahhhston crime movie. Equal parts gritty bank-robbing violence and harrowing love story, and a host of easily definable characters living in an insular Boston neighborhood, Affleck seems to be playing on Scorcese's Boston of yore in The Town.Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune, thought the shoot-'em-up scenes dragged and the characters were too one-dimensional although played well: "The best work comes in the smaller scenes. Blake Lively is exceptional in the role of a drug-addled single mother who represents the life Doug's trying to ditch. Everyone's effective, even when hamstrung by cliches." Sheri Linden at the Hollywood Reporter was harsh about the insularity and provincialism that other critics praised saying, "BlackBerries and OxyContin show up, but otherwise this might be the '70s." — Gothamist

Elyssa Goldberg

Published Sep 17, 2010

Modified Sep 17, 2010

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Click on the movie stills for more on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which include The Town, Catfish, Easy A, Alpha and Omega, Never Let Me Go, Jack Goes Boating, Picture Me, Freebie, Kings of Pastry, The Girl, The Temptation of St. Tony, On the Bowery, and Gone With the Pope.

Weekend Movie Forecast: <em>The Town</em> Vs. <em>Easy A</em>