September 17, 2010, - 6:22 pm

Weekend Box Office: “The Town,” “Easy A”

By Debbie Schlussel

I did not see “Alpha and Omega,” and “Devil” was not screened for critics, usually a sign it’s a bomb.  Here’s what I did see:

*  “The Town“:  I hate to say I really liked this movie, since I loathe its director, co-writer, and star, uber-leftist egomaniac Ben Affleck.  But it was good, despite his crummy acting.  That’s because he had a stellar cast including the very smokin’ hot (and also annoyingly uber-liberal) Jon Hamm, as an FBI agent on the trail of Affleck’s gang of Charlestown-based Irish bank robber thugs.  (Charlestown is the underclass White, bad neighborhood of Boston.)  But the movie was pretty good, except for the ending which departs from the book from which it is taken, in which all the bad guys get theirs in the end.  Not so here, and it irked me.  Also irksome was that the audience I saw it with was rooting for the bad guy violent thugs and against the cops, a phenomenon I’ve seen a lot of, recently.

Affleck leads the bank robbery gang to earn money for themselves and the IRA-connected Irish terrorists who direct them and lead the mob in their Boston ghetto for the White underclass.  Rebecca Hall plays the manager of a bank which is robbed, who ends up entangled with Affleck.  Jeremy Renner is one of the bank robbing gang.

Most annoying/complete BS line of the movie: when Jon Hamm’s FBI agent character says

We’ll never get 24-hour surveillance (on the suspected bank robbers) unless one of those idiots converts to Islam.

Memo to clueless Jon Hamm and writer/director Ben Affleck: Um, you mean unless they DON’T convert to Islam. Fact: the FBI does NOT do 24-hour surveillance on Muslims, unless you count their 24-hour ass-kissing of Muslims. That’s the problem. Yeah, right–24-hour surveillance of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, after his father told the U.S. Embassy he was a terrorist. 24-hour surveillance on the Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad. 24-hour surveillance on Nidal Malik Hasan, despite repeated giant hints he was going to kill Americans.  Sorry, but our government doesn’t do 24-hour surveillance of anyone except suspected Christian militias and the far right wing terrorists they’re always warning us that conservatives are.  Wake up, Hollywood. Sadly, the FBI doesn’t harass or even much investigate Muslims the way you’d like to think they do.  That’s why things are so screwed up.

Other than this and the ending, it’s a pretty decent flick and kind of clever. Can’t say much more, or I’ll spoil it.  But if you liked “The Departed” (read my review), you will like this (though this isn’t nearly as good, but still very good).  It’s very violent, so it’s not for kids or the queasy.  But it’s a fast-paced, clever action thriller and caper flick I found enjoyable, but would have found even more enjoyable if the racist people sitting near me had shut up for a single second and stopped constantly checking their Blackberries for e-mail, then uttering racist epithets and F-words at me when I protested.

Neither obvious nor predictable.  And very entertaining.  But not for you, if you can’t stand a lot of violence and blood, not to mention, Ben Affleck.

THREE REAGANS
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Watch the trailer .  .  .

* “Easy A“: I was unable to attend the official screening, so I paid to see the Midnight show, last night. And it was truly unbearable. This movie was soooo stupid, so dumb, with such idiotic characters, I just couldn’t take it anymore, and after giving it an hour I walked out. Oh, and it’s incredibly anti-Christian, mocking Christian students as total idiots.  I dream of the day a movie studio has the guts to do something like that to Muslims, post-9/11.

The story: Emma Stone plays a high school student who makes up a story that she lost her virginity. And because of this, all the nerds in high school pay her to pretend she also has sex with them, so they will be considered cool. The adults in this movie are like the ones who made the movie: idiots. Ditto for the people who pay ten bucks to see this and the parents who let their kids’ minds turn to mush sitting through it. Unbearable. You don’t need to be a prude to hate this. The sex theme in the movie wasn’t the main issue for me. It just stank.

Easy A is an Easy F. If you waste your money seeing it, you failed. Class dismissed.

FOUR MARXES PLUS
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Watch the trailer . . .




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40 Responses

(Charlestown is the underclass White, bad neighborhood of Boston.)

Debbie, you are an insensitive, prejudiced, anglo-phobic, JAP.

South Boston is the underclass White, bad neighborhood of Boston.

The Afleck’s are punks and would last 1 night in Southie.

Boondock Saint on September 17, 2010 at 8:58 pm

Debbie may have left too soon from ‘Easy A” because the plot takes a fantastic and unforeseeable twist. The audience was gasping and applauding and there was not a dry eye in the house by the end credits, not really, though.

Muslim(e)s Out of USA on September 17, 2010 at 9:28 pm

Thanks for the tip on “The Town”. I guess I might watch it on SHOWTIME when it gets there. I will not, not, not, put a penny in liberal Aflecks of the worlds pockets. More more money I can spend on cage fight PPV and rounds at the range.
I get it about the scum bags at the movies rooting for the bad guys. Trust me, those are the first ones yelling about where are the police when their ride gets jacked right in front of their house. Which is also why their insurance costs so much.lol

samurai on September 17, 2010 at 10:12 pm

Ugh…I can’t stand the bouf-headed Ben Affleck…but the review has me curious.

Jon Hamm being a Lib. Ha. I really wanna see “Mad Men” ‘cuz peeps just love it…not that hype ever makes me wanna see something, but from what I heard it sounds intreguing.

Guess I am not shocked JH is a Lib. He was crapping on about how today men treat women like shiite (true, but mostly ‘cuz broads have dropped their standards and have become skanks) then crapping on about how he has been with some dame for years but won’t marry her. That in itself is disrespectful. Liberals are hypocrites.

Skunky on September 17, 2010 at 11:27 pm

I saw Easy A from beginning to end. It was my 157th movie this year and I rank it dead last–even behind Hot Tub Machine, Grown Ups, The Back-Up Plan, Youth in Revolt and Vampires Suck. It repeatedly and infuriatingly slammed Christianity and conservative values. The Emma Stone character’s liberal family (which fashionably included an adopted black child) was nauseatingly permissive and “hip.” So I agree completely with your review, Debbie. And the film did NOT get better at the end!

I also agree with your comments about The Town. This is a well-directed story which unfortunately romanticizes–or at least winkingly excuses–criminal behavior and thuggery. Because the Affleck character has a pretty face and generous heart (generous with other people’s stolen money, that is), are we to ignore the innocents at the crime scenes who are hurt and who die? Just as you write, it was a bad decision to change Hogan’s original novel in this regard, and I think personally that that decision made the movie a waste.

I also happened to see Shyamalan’s new movie Devil and liked it a lot. Like many of Shyamalan’s other movies, the subtext is (theologically) conservative; also because in this case Shyamalan didn’t direct or write the screenplay (he merely produced and came up with the story) this one actually was scary and fun to watch.

I also saw Alpha and Omega and loved it for its sweetness and old fashioned values. A & O was my favorite this week.

Burke on September 17, 2010 at 11:34 pm

My gut reaction is this has been one of the worst movie summers I’ve seen.

Thanks for the reviews as always, Debbie. I won’t see either.

Special thanks for the Easy A review as I loathe these types of movies and would have never forgiven myself if I had somehow been dragged into this.

I could write pages and pages on the stupid people who have to check their email every minute, especially in movies and at restaurants. Social media is the biggest oxymoron in history.

Jeff_W on September 18, 2010 at 12:08 am

Why hasn’t anyone addressed the anti-Catholic message of The Town? The movie poster features zombie nuns, or something. Every time some religion gets picked on, it’s always the Catholic Church.

That in and of itself scratches it off of my list.

Oscar on September 18, 2010 at 12:22 pm

    Oscar,

    I agree with you 100% that the Catholic Church gets picked on, but it is not the only religion. Watch the tv show “Law and Order” or any show by David Kelly and the Jews are often the criminal, or depicted as gay, or litigious, or there is an outright assault on our religious beliefs.

    The problem is that there is a general assault on the JudeaChristian ethic that built this country.

    Of course, you will never see an attack on Islam. Indeed, they are portrayed as the victims, even though assaults on Jews and synagogues outnumber assaults on Muslims 9:1.

    As an American and a Jew, I respect all that Christians have contributed to our nation, as I hope you recognize the contributions of Jews. I respect my Buddhist and Hindu citizens who work hard and overachieve. Islam, however, has decided to destroy America and our Islamic oriented President is working overtime to achieve that.

    Jon Grant on September 19, 2010 at 7:38 pm

It seems to me that Easy A is a typically updated version of the 80’s movie Can’t Buy Me Love. Of course the new one will need to be much more offensive and have a higher sexual content than the previous version. Typical Hollywood. It simply reinforces why I dont see movies anymore

Karl on September 18, 2010 at 1:04 pm

Ben Afleck has no balls. He should have dressed the bank robbers as Mohamed….and then go into hiding. It’s easy to pick on Christians because they won’t cut your throat.

Big Gino on September 18, 2010 at 9:09 pm

This is the last batch (“The Town” excepted) of bad movies released to the summer graveyard.

From now to the end of the year, Hollywood will come out with its best offerings and by October and November we should get a first look at the forth-coming Oscar nominees.

NormanF on September 19, 2010 at 1:29 am

I noticed the trend quite some time ago for Hollywood to do “crime does pay” movies. I love the old movies like Asphalt Jungle. Like all movies I have seen of that era, the crime doesn’t pay motif was important and expected. In the Asphalt Jungle, there were several characters that were very likeable, but in the end none escaped. No wonder I haven’t attended a movie in years.

Winsur4 on September 19, 2010 at 1:31 am

Thank you for the review of Easy A and The Town, Debbie.

I cannot bear to watch almost any lib in a movie any longer, which is why, although I do watch some on cable, I avoid many movies, and or turn the channel at the mere sight of so many who turn my stomach (Susan Sarandon, Ben Aflek, Matt Daimon, Bill Maher, Janeane
Garafalo, Sean Penn, … and the list goes on.) When I see them, my stomach becomes upset and I move on quickly. I cannot stand to watch a snarky, self centered, egotistical, narcissistic, holier than though, condescending, misguided, wrong-on-the-facts, and on the wrong side of the issues leftist, snobbish, looney tune actor pretend to be something or someone while earning millions, knowing that, without even putting myself in proximity of them, they ugly mug will appear somewhere preaching their misguided, misinformed, leftist, racist, anti-Jew, anti-Christan, anti-Conservative, ant-family, anti-marriage, anti-Israel, anti-US, pro-Islam, pro-homosexual, pro-socialist/communist nonsense.

No thanks.

I won’t be watching either movie.

Maybe I can find my copy of Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon and watch that over the next week. My youngest son will love Bruce Lee’s martial arts sequences, or I’ll just watch Airplane, or Man from Snowy River.

William on September 19, 2010 at 1:37 am

I don’t care how good “The Town” is. Any movie with any Affleck in front of, or behind, the camera will not get my money.

verbatim on September 19, 2010 at 3:53 am

I liked The Town but the ending was ludicrous. A fake happy ending if there ever was one.

AliceL. on September 19, 2010 at 8:56 pm

    Ugh. I hate American films’ contrived happy endings. Perhaps I will skip it.

    One of my favourite films is “The Vanishing”. There are two and made by the same director but the Europeon version is awesome (and dark with a grim ending) and the American version is crap (with contrived, happy ending). Love America, hate American movies.

    Skunky on September 19, 2010 at 10:53 pm

I enjoyed Devil and I’m surprised it wasn’t screened for critics. For me it was based on the classic Twilight Zone episode Five Characters in Search of an Exit, written by Rod Serling. Of course this had the devil and was a lot scarier (for me), but I found it entertaining and didn’t cause me to jump on the “I hate M Night bandwagon.” Compared to a lot of the junk out there, this was far and above the dreck we see too often nowadays.

Marc on September 20, 2010 at 10:06 am

I liked the movie and thought Blake Lively did a great job along with Jeremy Renner.

Skunky, what on earth makes you think (MOST) women are skanks? (“true, but mostly ‘cuz broads have dropped their standards and have become skanks”). This hookup generation has produced some rotten standards but there are plenty of nice women out there who cannot find nice single guys because they are weeding through the married losers on the singles dating sites (lying and acting single) !!!

CJ on September 20, 2010 at 11:38 am

It is all trash. Excellent reviews DS.

L on September 20, 2010 at 12:28 pm

I almost go to ‘new’ movies. Then the weeks pile up and then there’s more ‘new’ movies I almost go & see. I miss most of them only to see some of them on cable within a year or, so it seems.

The most common comment around our house: I’m glad I didn’t pay $10.00 to see that”.

P. Aaron on September 21, 2010 at 3:37 am

A population that enthusiastically forks over two hundred dollars a seat to be entertained by sociopaths like Ryan Tucker should be expected to root for the bad guys in a movie.

Jew haters of Columbine on September 22, 2010 at 9:15 am

“The Town” is the best movie Ben Afleck has ever done. It does have a contrived ending but it is an action movie with a love interest. With a twist. It is formula, but it’s good formula. The showing I went to ended with the audience clapping. Don’t see that very often.

Tanstaafl on October 1, 2010 at 2:51 pm

As someone who also hails from the Boston area, I had looked forward to seeing “The Town”, because I’ve always liked seeing movies (and reading books) about Boston. However, “The Town” was highly overrated and didn’t live up to the hype that surrounded it for the following reasons:

A) The car chases/crashes and shoot-outs in the North End and Fenway Park were incredibly unrealistic. Nobody would’ve survived any of them; there would’ve been bloodied and broken bodies all over the place!

B) The cast was poor to mediocre at best, and the Boston accents, particularly on the part of Ben Affleck, were forced and totally unnatural-sounding.

C) They tried to make Boston look bigger than it really and truly is. Boston isn’t New York, so why are they trying to make it look more like NY?

D) The stereotypes abound; Everybody in Boston is a rabid Red Sox Fan? All people in Charlestown are bank robbers? Do they all talk inarticulately and drink all the time? Then, there’s the typical angelic, wholesome good-girl Claire, who lives next door and looks like somebody straight out of a lady Clairol commercial, who Doug, the thug with a heart of gold supposedly falls for after he and his men trailed her for weeks, knocked over her bank, and then kidnapped her at gunpoint after beat up and nearly killing her friend and co-worker.

E) Why in the world would somebody like Claire, a bank manager, fall in love with Doug MacRay, a sociopathic armed felon and wanted fugitive, who she’d met in a laundromat and acted deceitfully towards her, and then continue to stick with him even after learning the truth about who he was? The Doug/Claire romance, imho, was about the most ludicrous part of the film, and it dragged on too much and too long, plus there was no real chemistry to it, at all. The idea of a traumatized, terrorized bank manager (who quit her job afterwards as a result) being with a professional armed felon, wanted fugitive and all around loser like Doug MacRay is not only unrealistic, but it just doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t buy it!

F) I think that the ending should’ve been way different; Claire should’ve kept her fat trap shut about the presence of the Feds in her Charlestown, not answered Doug’s phone calls, and let the Feds catch Doug and send him to do long, hard time in a federal penitentiary for his crimes; armed robbery, kidnapping, and murder. Claire, imho, should’ve been criminally persecuted herself, or at least put on some sort of probation for abetting and protecting Doug, or at least being an accessory to his crimes, and for receiving stolen goods (i. e. the stolen money from Doug’s Fenway Park heist that Doug left for Claire in her little community garden).

mplo on March 14, 2012 at 12:13 pm

Uhm? I don’t understand are you now against the muslims? I think that’s ridiculious. In America the Islam is potrayed as a bad religion. I don’t quite understand why. Not all muslims are TERRORISTS guys. Wake up america.

Lola on May 11, 2013 at 4:55 pm

I’ll be sticking with great, golden oldie but keeper classics, such as West Side Story (my all time favorite film, hands down!), Lawrence of Arabia, and many other great classic movies. “The Town” doesn’t really do it for me, and, imho, it’ll never, ever be able to compete with any of the great, golden oldie but keeper classic films!

mplo on July 6, 2013 at 5:12 pm

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