For whatever reason, I kept thinking of “Mystic River” as I watched this. Maybe it was the trapped-in-the-old-neighborhood thing, or the four-guys-bonding thing, or the bottled-up-rage thing. Not sure. Affleck did well in all three of his roles, as writer, director, and main actor. He’s no Sean Penn, but he has his moments. The chase scene had me gripping the arms of the chair… narrow streets with blind corners do that. Interesting role for Jon Hamm (of Mad Men fame) as the lead FBI agent. One of Pete Postlethwaite’s last films, too. RIP.

My girlfriend’s daughter suggested I watch this movie, and it wasn’t until the opening sequence started that I realized that this was the Ben Affleck bank robbery movie. As tempted as I was to go ahead and hit the stop button right then, I opted to go ahead and watch it until the end.

I actually ended up enjoying the movie. Although there were plenty of predictable points, it still kept me awake and waiting to see what would happen next. If I had any complaints it may have been that the movie was a bit too short. It felt as if it just skipped from bank robbery to bank robbery without getting too deep on the character development side of the story.

Overall, if you enjoy action movies with a subtle plot twist here and there, then you will probably enjoy this. Just don’t go in expecting to see anything as good as “Heat”. So for one movie, Ben Affleck gets a free pass from me. Maybe he should stick to these Boston roles more often.